BIRD CRADLES. IOI 



without obvious evidences of struggle and disappointment fresh 

 commentary on a well known text in proverbial philosophy. 



There is obvious wisdom in the use of cocoons and hornets' 

 nests, so much sought after by pensile builders compact, tough 

 fabrics in themselves, they are naturally chosen for their strength. 

 But it is not easy to explain, on any grounds of utility, the un- 

 canny discrimination of the great crested flycatcher, whose nest 

 in the hollow tree would seem to demand no thought for other 

 qualities than softness and warmth. Once, in my boyhood, while 

 investigating the fascinating hollow in an old willow-tree, where 

 I had once surprised a day -dozing owl, I found the familiar 

 matted felt at the bottom largely intermixed with fragments of 

 snake-skin. Knowing the habits of snakes in the casting of 

 their skins, having once or twice found them in the grass, I fell 

 to wondering whether it could be a common practice of the 

 black snake or " racer " to climb a tree for the purpose of exu- 

 viation. Later on the mystery was solved, having learned in 

 my ornithology that the great crested flycatcher considered the 

 snake -skin the ne plus ultra of nest -linings. The nidification 

 of this bird usually takes place in the deserted retreat of the 

 woodpecker, and is seldom without its complement of one or 

 more snake-skins, which are frequently interwoven in a bed of 

 hog-bristles and feathers, rather indicating a peculiar fancy for 

 exuvice. 



But here, again, who knows but what some stray vireo's nest 

 those catch - alls, samplers of nature's nest -textiles may not 

 have given the flycatcher the hint. I have a vireo's nest in my 

 possession which is largely composed of snake-skins, and they are 

 frequently thus found. 



The purple finch, according to some authorities, is addicted 

 to a similar whim occasionally. Of course either of these excep- 

 tional cases may represent nothing more than a successful raid 

 on some abandoned nest of the flycatcher. 



The toad is said to habitually swallow its cast-off skin, in 

 which case the red-eye must have once surprised him in the gas- 

 tronomic act, for in one of my analyses of these nests I discov- 



