184 WESTERN SERIES OF READERS. 



weed-fiber, threads of plants, sycamore-leaf wool, 

 and soft bits of anything else. 



The beak of the bush-tit is very small and 

 pointed, and could not carry large loads of any- 

 thing, like the mocker and the blackbird. So the 

 nest is put together in the smallest pieces, bit by 

 bit, making a sort of felt when it is finished, not 

 easily torn or broken. Thistle-blossom, and milk- 

 weed, and everlasting, with sage scraps, are hidden 

 away from last fall's harvest by the wind and 

 tucked into nooks for the bush-tits to find in the 

 spring. 



The bush-tits are insect-eaters, and among 

 other foods which they like are the little spiders 

 about hedges and on the trunks of trees and in 

 cracks along the bark of dead wood. You have 

 seen little, round, flat coverings of these spiders' 

 eggs that stick on flat surfaces and are not 

 readily torn up. In their search after spiders and 

 fresh eggs for breakfast, the bush-tits tear these 

 little round egg-wrappers off, and use them in 

 their nests. All through the lichens and plant- 

 fiber we find these little round white disks. On 

 the outside of one nest we found fifteen of these 

 spider-cocoons fastened with threads from decayed 

 cactus stalks. 



One would think the birds would use strings to 



