94 STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. 



choice of strands by which the nest is anchored to the swinging 

 bough, its support being almost entirely dependent upon a cer- 

 tain brown silk from the cocoon spider (Argiope Riparia). 



Often in my rambles have I pulled this floss from its round 

 tough cocoon suspended among the weeds, and wondered wheth- 

 er the arts might not yet prove its utility! And here it is, ad- 

 justed with artful design just where its need is most apparent 

 and its strength recommends it, lapping and overlapping the 

 forks, and extending across the span from twig to twig, where it 

 is interwoven and twisted with strong strips of bark and long 

 wisps from the stalk of the milk-weed or similar hempen sub- 

 stance. The economy of this spider silk is manifest in all the 

 five nests of this kind which are before me, and while it appears 

 occasionally lower down in the structure, these outcroppings 

 prove to be only the ends of the loops which encompass the 

 twig and are securely anchored among the interwoven meshes 

 of the fabric. The reliance of the bird on the strength of this 

 material would seem perfectly plain, for in the nests wherein it is 

 largely employed much fewer strands of bark are passed about 

 the twigs than when the inferior white cobweb is used at this 

 point of support a fact which I have often noticed. 



The cobweb element forms an important amalgam in the 

 nests of all the vireos, of which the above will be recognized as a 

 specimen. Laid on in snowy tufts, or artfully twisted into fine 

 threads I cannot believe this twisting to be accidental meshed 

 about the basket framework or drawn across some precious bit of 

 hornet's nest or glistening yellow birch-bark or newspaper clip- 

 ping, or hung below in fluffy tassels, it is a recognized badge of 

 this particular tribe of feathered architects, whose pendent nests 

 are among the most picturesque of all our birds. The hereditary 

 art of nidification of the vireos has probably suffered little change 

 through the ages. As a rule their nests, unlike those of other 

 pensile builders, are wrought from Nature's own raw materials, 

 and, even as we generally find them, might have been constructed 

 a thousand miles from the haunts of man or a thousand years 

 ago. And yet, in one particular respect, it must be admitted, the 



