312 Thoughts About Nests [FIRST WEEK 



Few nests are more beautiful and at the same time more 

 durable than a vireo's. I have seen the nests of three 

 successive years in the same tree, all built, no doubt, by 

 the same pair of birds, the nest of the past summer perfect 

 in shape and quality, that of the preceding year thread- 

 bare, while the home which sheltered the brood of three 

 summers ago is a mere flattened skeleton, reminding one 

 of the ribs and stern post of a wrecked boat long pounded 

 by the waves. 



The subject of nests has been sadly neglected by nat- 

 uralists, most of whom have been chiefly interested in the 

 owners or the contents; but when the whys and wherefores 

 of the homes of birds are made plain we shall know far 

 more concerning the little carpenters, weavers, masons, and 

 basket-makers who hang our groves and decorate our 

 shrubbery with their skill. When on our winter's walk we 

 see a distorted, wind-torn, grass cup, think of the quartet 

 of beautiful little creatures now flying beneath some trop- 

 ical sun, which owe their lives to the nest, and which, if 

 they are spared, will surely return to the vicinity next 

 summer. 



That time of year thou may'st in me behold, 

 When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang 

 Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, 

 Bare, ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. 



SHAKESPEARE. 



