278 Life and Immortality. 



THREE-STORY NEST OF YELLOW WARBLER. 

 Showing the Builder's Manner of Out-witting the Cow Bird. 



lichens, and just as big as a walnut, conveys a good idea of 

 its appearance. But all nests are not made of cotton. The 

 yellow wool that forms the dress of the undeveloped fern- 

 frond, or the red shoddy that is wind-swept into heaps outside 

 some woollen factory, is often made to take the place of the 

 down of the seed of the poplar. Not to be mentioned in 

 the same breath with these, is the nest I am now about to 

 describe. It was saddled upon the horizontal bough of a 

 small white oak-tree that grew on the side of a thicket, and 

 was peculiar from the nature of the material that composed 

 its inner fabric. This substance resembled burnt umber in 

 color, and was as soft as the finest wool, or the fluffiest down, 

 and proved, upon examination, to be the mycelium of a 

 fungus which the builders had gathered from decaying stumps 

 or mildewing tree-branch. 



