266 LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



gold growth, woven together, with an excess of 

 slender vegetable fibres of Linum Virginiana, 

 and L. usitatissimum occasionally interwrought 

 with vegetable wool plucked from Verbascum 

 Thapsus. The interior is lined with a commingl- 

 ing of divers shreds of Taraxacum Dens-leonis 

 and Cirsium neatly and cozily felted. It measures 

 two and a half inches in diameter, and the same in 

 height. The cavity is two inches wide at the rim 

 and the same in depth. 



Another nest which we have before us from 

 Union Co., Pa., distant 180 miles from the former 

 site, varies materially in size and in the composing 

 elements. It was placed when discovered between 

 two horizontal twigs joined at right angles to a 

 third, to which it was firmly attached by hempen 

 strings, and still further secured to a vertical twig 

 at right angles to the latter by similar cords. The 

 exterior is composed mainly of twisted and un- 

 twisted hempen strings of the color of -taw, cotton 

 string, fine roots of grasses, spiders' webs, narrow 

 shreds of Linum usitatissimwn, neatly and com- 

 pactly felted together. The interior is lined with 

 fine yellow rootlets and an excess of white horse- 

 hair. It is hemispherical in shape with a diameter 

 and depth of three inches each. The cavity is two 

 inches wide at the rim and of equal depth. This 

 nest when found about the 1 5th of August con- 

 tained young birds. 



Still another nest which we have is somewhat 

 exceptional in its position. It rests upon, a hori- 



