266 



Life and Immortality. 



RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD'S NEST. 

 Located in a Field of Timothy. 



symmetrical in contour, and so quaintly, deftly woven, that 

 the eye never tires in looking at it, nor the mind in contem- 

 plating its wonderful mechanism. Broad ribbons of grasses 

 are its composing materials, and eight of them are so woven 

 into the nest as to securely fasten it to the tall typhas in the 

 summit of which it was placed. 



But a more clever nest of these birds, and one that is as 

 unique in shape as it is in texture and composition, was found 

 in the summer of 1879 in the vicinity of Philadelphia. It was 

 built in a field of timothy, many of the stalks of which being 

 wrought into the fabric. Its shape is that of an inverted 

 cone, and so beautifully, symmetrically and compactly put 

 together is it, that one could hardly credit the builders with 



