THE TRAGEDIES OF THE NESTS. 87 



It is modeled without and within with equal neatness 

 and art, like the nest of the humming-bird and the 

 little gray gnat-catcher. The material is much more 

 refractory than that used by either of these birds, 

 being, in the present case, dry, fine cedar twigs ; but 

 these were bound into a shape as rounded and com- 

 pact as could be moulded out of the most plastic ma- 

 terial. Indeed, the nest of this bird looks precisely 

 like a large, lichen-covered, cup-shaped excrescence 

 of the limb upon which it is placed. And the bird, 

 while sitting, seems entirely at her ease. Most birds 

 seem to make very hard work of incubation. It is a 

 kind of martyrdom which appears to tax all their 

 powers of endurance. They have such a fixed, rigid, 

 predetermined look, pressed down into the nest and 

 as motionless as if made of cast-iron. But the wood 

 pewee is an exception. She is largely visible above 

 the rim of the nest. Her attitude is easy and grace- 

 ful ; she moves her head this way and that, and seems 

 to take note of whatever goes on about her ; and if 

 her neighbor were to drop in for a little social chat, 

 she could doubtless do her part. In fact, she makes 

 light and easy work of what, to most other birds, is 

 such a serious and engrossing matter. If it does not 

 look like play with her, it at least looks like leisure 

 and quiet contemplation. 



There is no nest-builder that suffers more from 

 crows and squirrels and other enemies than the 

 wood-thrush. It builds as openly and unsuspiciously 

 as if it thought all the world as honest as itself. Its 



