60 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



magpie suggests the idea that its owner had an 

 eye to the dangers which awaited it, and so made 

 a house adapted for defence from its enemies, 

 and guardecJ so well with thorny brandies, that 

 one might as well attempt to seize a fui'ze-bush 

 hastily, as to grasp at it. The wren has the 

 aperture of its nest at the side next to the 

 light : and the blackbird building so early in 

 spring, not only seeks the shelter of the ever- 

 green bouglis, but makes a firm wall to its nest, 

 impervious to wind and rain. The swallow knows 

 how to glue its cradle in the angle of the window 

 or chimney, or beneatli the eaves of the house ; 

 and constructs a solid dwelling of clay, tliickened 

 with straws and feathers, and well lined with 

 a downy quilt. ^lany of the birds of other lands 

 are even more ingenious architects than our native 

 songsters. Thus the pretty Penduline Titmouse 

 of the south and east of Europe, frames a nest 

 of remarkable elegance, woven of down which it 

 gathers from the catkin of the willow or poplar, 

 or from the ball of the dandelion or the thistle tuft. 

 Of these it manufoctures a kind of felt or cloth, 

 which it strengthens by the fibres of plants, while 

 it lines its nest with a thick cushion of the down 



