IN FIELD AND WOOD 



He is usually only a gratuitous superintendent of 

 the work. The male oriole visits the half-finished 

 structure of his mate, looks it over, tugs at the strings 

 now and then as if to try them, and, I suppose, has 

 his own opinion about the work, but I have never 

 seen him actually lend a hand and bring a string 

 or a hair. If I belonged to our sentimental school of 

 nature writers I might say that he is too proud, that 

 it is against the traditions of his race and family; 

 but probably the truth is that he does n't know how; 

 that the nest-building instinct is less active in him 

 than in his mate; that he is not impelled by the same 

 necessity. It is easy to be seen how important it is 

 that the nesting instinct should be strong in the 

 female, whether it is or not in the male. The male 

 may be cut off and yet the nest be built and the 

 family reared. Among the rodents I fancy the nest 

 is always built by the female. 



Whatever the explanation, the mother bird is 

 really the head of the family; she is the most active 

 in nest-building, and in most cases in the care of the 

 young; and among birds of prey, as among insects, 

 the female is the larger and the more powerful. 



The wood thrush whose nest-building I have just 

 described, laid only one egg, and an abnormal-looking 

 egg at that very long and both ends of the same 

 size. But to my surprise out of the abnormal-look- 

 ing egg came in due time a normal-looking chick 

 which grew to birdhood without any mishaps. The 

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