OUR FEATHERED ENGINEERS. 79 



for the nest is chosen in some suitable crotch of 

 the branches, often one covered with tree-moss 

 and lichen being selected. A dozen nests of the 

 Chaffinch lie before me as I write, selected with 

 care for the variety of their materials and the 

 handsome manner in which they are made. In 

 most of them moss and fine grasses are used ; in 

 a few, moss alone ; these materials being worked 

 and felted together with spiders' webs, bits of 

 vegetable down, and lichens. The outside of the 

 nest is made to closely resemble in colour the 

 surrounding objects, whether branch, or trunk, or 

 foliage ; the inside is warmly lined with hair, 

 feathers, and down from various seeds. Chaf- 

 finches are most fastidious birds during the period 

 of nest-building ; very anxious, too, for their un- 

 completed home, and do comparatively a small 

 piece of work each day. A well-made, handsome 

 nest takes a fortnight to build ; but nests made by 

 young birds are more careless in execution, and 

 sometimes put together in a week. The female 

 is the builder, the male bringing most of the 

 material. Some nests are very beautifully gar- 

 nished with gold or silver lichen, bits of paper, 

 flakes of elm bark, and even the prismatic wings 

 of insects mixed up with spiders' webs. Another 

 skilful felt-maker is the Dipper. Greenest moss 

 is almost exclusively used in forming the outer 

 portion of the nest, this material being cleverly 

 felted together into a compact globular mass, and 

 lined with dead leaves, dry grass, and moss. It 



