BIRD CRADLES. 



caution, intelligence, reason and 

 economy, discrimination, taste, 

 fancy, even its caprice and 

 whim, almost of its humor. 



In their arts we may learn 

 something of their mental re- 

 sources, even as the antiquary dis- 

 covers in the remnant decorated rel- 

 ics of an extinct people testimonies not 

 disclosed by the mummy. To know 

 the nidification and nest life of a bird 

 is to get the cream of its history. 

 We may snap our fingers at vocab- 

 ularies and synonyms. 



Even an empty nest is still elo- 

 quent with interest. A few of them 

 have been gathered about me as I 

 write; and how beautiful they are! 

 Here is one picked up at random. Not 

 a rare specimen from the tropics, but 

 an every-day affair of our country 

 walks. What an interesting study 

 of ways and means and confident 

 skill ! Hung by its edge from 

 a horizontal fork of a maple 

 twig, with a third of its cir- 

 cumference unsupported, it 

 is yet so boldly wrought 

 that this very span shall 

 serve as the perch of the parent 

 bird. Its edge is plainly com- 

 pressed, though barely depressed, 

 by evident continual use, and con- 

 sidering the nature of the materials 

 at this portion its stability was perfectly 

 insured. What nice discrimination in the 



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