THE NEST IN THE PASTURE SPRUCE. 237 



singly from one rod, or five, to a quarter of a mile from 

 the spot where she finds them. Birds often carry their nest- 

 ing-stuff very long distances. I know some crows that used 

 to line their nests with cow's hair which they must have 

 collected fully a mile from the nest. This was evident because 

 we could see that the hair was such as is scraped from hides 

 at the vats of tanneries ; it was in mats that had been 

 soaked ; and the only tannery was a full mile away. 



Let us examine the nest in the spruce tree. First there is 

 a coarse platform of twigs of birch and juniper, intermingled 

 with tough spruce roots. These must have been pulled by 

 great effort out of the hard, stony ground. It would be as 

 easy for you to jerk up a five-year-old apple tree, and the bird 

 must have gone to work very much as you would have done 

 with the apple tree, first separating each of the side roots, so 

 that only the largest one was left to be pulled off by main 

 strength. There are a number of large roots, more dead 

 twigs, much cedar bark, moss, fine roots, string, and rope yarn 

 in the outer and coarser part of the nest, each with a history 

 when we think where the nest came from. 



The cedar bark was stripped from the rail fence surround- 

 ing the pasture. I suspect that the rhodora lent these fine 

 rootlets, and these dried, smooth suckers look to me like dried 

 witch-grass stems. (Do not call them roots ; the witch-grass 

 spreads by an underground stem.) Here is the gray moss that 

 grows on ledges. The nearest boulder, where this could be 

 obtained, is twenty rods away from the spruce tree. Here is 

 string hard-twisted cord, in pieces eight inches and a foot 

 long, as if bitten into convenient lengths by the graybird; 

 loose-twisted wicking, which could be used in bulk; fine 

 thread; materials that I cannot identify; rope-yarn un- 

 twisted; cotton-waste from the railroad track; sheep's wool, 



