96 The Building of the Nest 



Going back to the fields and thickets, it 

 will be seen that birds, as a rule, desire that 

 their nests should be inconspicuous, and their 

 efforts are always largely in this direction in 

 the construction. The foliage of the tree or 

 bush is considered, and when not direftly 

 concealed by this, the nest is made to look 

 marvellously like a natural production of the 

 vegetable world, as the beautiful nest of our 

 wood pee-wee or the humming-bird shows. 

 These nests are then not merely the homes 

 of young birds, but are places of defence 

 against a host of enemies. The parent birds 

 have no simple task set before them that can 

 be gone through with mechanically year after 

 year. Every season new problems arise, if 

 their favorite haunts suffer change, and every 

 year the birds prove equal to their solution. 



