BIRD CRADLES. 



103 



willows, the Nankeen wool of the Virginia cotton-grass (Eriopho- 

 rum Virginicum), the down of fine stalks, the hair of the downy 

 seeds of the button-wood (Platanus), or the pappus of compound 

 flowers, and then lined either with fine bent grass (Agrostis] or 

 down and horse-hair, and, rarely, with a few accidental feathers," 

 presenting a fanciful bit of bird architecture as well as a keen 

 piece of analysis, in which the erudite botanist is as conspicuous 

 as the ornithologist. 



One other " yellow bird," the goldfinch, builds a similarly ex- 

 quisite home, but reserves its nesting till a much later season 

 than most of our birds, a fact which has caused no little discus- 

 sion among naturalists ; the commonly accepted, though hardly 

 satisfactory, theory having reference to a scarcity of the required 

 seed-food for the young during the vernal months. In a similar 

 vein of reasoning it might be claimed that the nesting was de- 

 ferred to await the ripening of certain favorite plumy seeds of 

 which the structure is usually composed. One theory is as good 

 as the other, for both are somewhat shattered by numerous in- 

 stances of nidification as early as the middle of May, in which 

 the nest is of course composed of seasonable downy elements ; 

 for the willows and poplars then offer their silken tribute, and 

 the dandelion balls cloud the meadows. 



For some years I was puzzled to account for a certain muti- 

 lation which I had often observed on the dandelion. As is well 

 known to some of my readers, the dandelion usually blooms three 

 consecutive days, after which the calyx finally closes about the 

 withered flower, and withdraws beneath the leaves. Here it re- 

 mains for a week or more, its stem gradually lengthening while 

 the seeds are maturing, until, on the fourteenth day from the 

 date of first flowering, the smoky ball expands. For some days 

 prior to this fulfilment the seeds are practically full -feathered, the 

 growing pappus having forced the withered petals from the tip 

 of the calyx. On several occasions I have observed the side of 

 their calyces torn asunder and the interior completely emptied of 

 its contents of a hundred or more winged seeds. I had attrib- 

 uted the theft to some whimsical caterpillar appetite, until one 



