The Wit of the Wild 



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common in the Hudson Valley, are almost always 

 inhabited by the phcebe, too, and the basement 

 or cellar seems to be preferred, no matter how- 

 dark. In such places they are not shy, and will 

 let you make a close acquaintance with their life. 

 Now in this association with man, and in these 

 improved situations, which have been occupied 

 in the older districts by succeeding generations 

 of phoebes for one or two hundred years, the 

 birds seem to have changed their style of nest- 

 building in only one particular, though they 

 occasionally pick up civilized material, such as 

 strings, tufts of wool, straws, etc. ; the one par- 

 ticularly referred to is the now prevalent use 

 of horsehair as lining, where they must have 

 employed fine grass before horses came into the 

 country. This novelty, however, is a disad- 

 vantage, for it causes the nests to become so 

 overrun with vermin that it is said the young 

 are sometimes worried to death by the excess of 

 it. This would prevent the use of the nest for 

 the second brood, which the early-breeding spe- 

 cies almost always raises ; but it frequently hap- 

 pens that a second nest is built upon the top of 



*$ 246 o 



