NATURE AND ANIMAL LIFE 



Much of their activity is the result of their organi- 

 zation, and very little the result of free choice, as 

 with man, though in the case of man what he 

 calls his "free choice" is no doubt largely deter- 

 mined by forces and conditions of which he is not 

 conscious. 



I notice that the nests of the orioles are longest 

 and deepest where they are the most pendant, that 

 they are deeper and more pocket-like on the willows 

 and elms than on the oaks and hickories, and that 

 they are the shallowest of all on stiff young maples 

 where they are usually placed near the stem of the 

 tree. In such cases they are shallow and cuplike. 

 The longest nests I see near me are on the weeping 

 willows. Now if this observation holds true, the 

 natural inference would be that the birds consid- 

 ered the matter, and that they knew that the more 

 pendant the nest the greater the danger to eggs and 

 young during high winds; therefore, in certain situa- 

 tions they build deeper than in others. But I can- 

 not make myself believe that the birds take any 

 thought about the matter at all. The simplest ex- 

 planation of their course seems to me to be this : In 

 the act of building their nests they would be swayed 

 more or less by the winds more upon the willows 

 and elms than upon trees of stiffer branches like 

 oaks and maples. This greater swaying would stim- 

 ulate them to build deeper nests; it would be the 

 condition that would bring their pendant-nest in- 

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