I0 6 STARLIGHT AND SUNSHINE. 



the softest materials of the forest, bud scales, dried blossoms, veg- 

 etable downs, and the delicate cottony substance which envelops 

 the unfolding fronds of fern, with flexible skeletons of leaves as 

 an external framework. The rim of the nest is generally con- 

 tracted. But the most marked feature of the structure is its or- 

 namentation ; the whole exterior being closely thatched with small, 

 brightly colored, greenish-gray lichen. 



The woolly, unrolling fronds of many of our ferns are a famil- 

 iar feature of the spring woods, and offer at this season, and 

 later, from the mature stems, a tempting crop to a number of our 

 more diminutive birds, including the various warblers, the black 

 and white creeper, and humming-bird, etc. 



This exquisitely soft, buff -colored material, for convenience 

 called "fern-cotton," however, is not all from the ferns. A close 

 analysis with the magnifier discloses a diversity of elements. 

 Some of it has been sheared from the mullein. The woolly 

 bloom from young linden leaves and buds of white and red oak 

 have already been identified in the substance, the stems of ever- 

 lasting have furnished a generous share, and there are doubtless 

 elements from a hundred other sources best known to the birds. 

 Some of it, too, has already served in the winter snuggery of the 

 horse-chestnut bud beneath the varnished scales. 



I once observed a tiny bird gleaning among the opening 

 leaves, now webbed and festooned with the liberated soft yellow 

 down, that most beautiful of all the spring's revelations of burst- 

 ing buds, so aptly figured by Lowell in the provincial tongue of 

 Hosea Biglow : 



"The gray boss -chestnut's leetle hands unfold 

 Softer'n a baby's be at three days old." 



How irresistibly does this recall that companion couplet in the 

 "Pastoral line" from the same memorable paragraph, so true to 

 the spirit of the vernal season : 



"In ellum shrouds the flashin' hang -bird clings 

 An' for the summer vy'ge his hammock slings." 



