WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



nests open at the top, discarding the old patri- 

 archal domes and narrow entrances of their fore- 

 fathers/' This is not an isolated case, but one 

 that may frequently be matched wherever there 

 is a roof over them, so far as my own observation 

 goes. 



The purple martin and white-bellied swallow 

 both accept of houses ready made, saving them- 

 selves all trouble except in furnishing them; and 

 even the burrowing bank and rough-winged swal- 

 lows are learning that it is cheaper to build in a 

 snug cranny in an old wall than laboriously to 

 dig a deep crypt in a sand-bank wherein to lay 

 their pearly eggs. 



Men's industries have supplied the birds with 

 some new and exceedingly useful building ma- 

 terials, such as furnishing those weavers, the orioles 

 and vireos, with strings and yarn for the warp of 

 their fabrications, and the yellow-bird with cotton 

 and wool to make her already downy bed still softer. 

 Instances of abnormally late and early breeding 

 seem to be very common in England, and are com- 

 ing to be more and more frequently recorded on 

 this side of the Atlantic. This is not to be won- 

 dered at, since our operations insure to the birds 

 a continued supply of suitable food, and thus en- 



215 



