IS'ov. 1887.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



181 



horticulturist will not be scientifically con- 

 ducted. Let us take their observations as 

 offered, and after approved metliods establish 

 or disprove tliese things that lie along the line 

 of the practical value of our favorite study. 

 Such work will help us more than bird laws by 

 closing many a field that is now open to the 

 boy-with-a-gun, and by opening hospitable 

 front doors and cellar doors and inviting fields 

 to the student who to-day glances nervously 

 around at sight of "'No trespassing." 



I will be glad indeed to correspond through 

 O. AND O. or personally with any one interested 

 along this line of ornithological work. 



Observations on Nest-Building. 



BY WALTER HOXIE, FROGMORE, S. C. 



The year before last I went "cooning." It 

 was late for coons, and I rapped at many hol- 

 lows without success. At last I dislodged a 

 Pileated Woodpecker, and made a careful note 

 of the spot for future reference. In the next 

 hollow I secured my coon. 



Turning homeward, I noticed in a big "'dead- 

 ing'' a pine tree with the top broken off, leaving 

 a wide, ragged hollow on the south side. Into 

 this were thrust four stout sticks. It was fully 

 thirty feet from the ground, and while I was 

 wondering how they came there, a Fish Hawk 

 passed overhead and added a fifth stick to the 

 collection, thus solving my problem for me. 



The planting of this stick was a work of con- 

 siderable time and patience. The mate came 

 and assisted, and some very animated conver- 

 sation ensued which I was too ignorant to trans- 

 late, or at least could only do so in a manner 

 which could not be called anything but very 

 "freely." I got quite interested in this piece 

 of architecture, and spent a good deal of time 

 during the next week " overseeing" the job. 

 When the nest was completed it looked as if it 

 was stuck against the south side of the stub, 

 and the hollow was plainly close to this edge. 

 With a glass I could see the feathers of the sit- 

 ting bird through the side of the nest. After 

 incubation was well advanced there came a 

 very windy spell of weather. After it was over 

 the male was exceedingly active, adding mate- 

 rial to the north side of the structure. Plainly 

 the winds had shown them that their domicile 

 was top heavy, and he was balasting it for fear 

 a stronger gale might come and topple it over. 

 Last year this same nest was lepaired and the 

 old hollow completely filled up, and a new one 

 made on top and in the middle. 



Close by my house is a bed of rushes in which 

 a Clapper Kail builds every year. The first 

 time I found the nest it contained only one egg, 

 and did not seem wide enough to hold more 

 than one more. It was in plain sight from my 

 ''skinning" window, so I placed my spy glass 

 in a rest and lost much valuable time in watch- 

 ing the movements of the old marsh-hen and 

 her mate. As each new e^g was laid they 

 added fresh material to the outside, until the 

 nest was at last amply suflicient to contain the 

 full set of eight. The deft way in which they 

 interwove their building material was really a 

 beautiful sight. The male dragged one long, 

 tiailing reed from a rice pond fully a hundred 

 yards distant, and stitched it through and 

 through the whole outside. I took it out after 

 the young were hatched and found it to meas- 

 ure four feet and a half in length. 



Quite near this nest I took one of a Long- 

 billed Marsh Wren with two entrances instead 

 of one. One was much larger than the other 

 and a friend accounts for it by supposing that 

 the wren was a little crazy — like the man that 

 cut a hole in his barn door for the cat and a 

 smaller one for the kitten. 



Late in May I found a White-eyed Vireo's 

 nest containing one egg. It was in the left 

 hand side of a double crotch on a maple bough, 

 and directly below it, and touching the bottom, 

 was a tall thorny shrub known locally as a 

 "DeviFs Walking Stick." The top of this be- 

 ing upon the bottom of the nest had canted it 

 somewhat to the right, and the little architects 

 had torn away a portion of the right side of the 

 edge of the nest and carried a " guy" across to 

 the right hand side of the other crotch. The 

 left side of the nest was also raveled out a little 

 from its supporting twig plainly for the pur- 

 pose of "getting slack" for the purpose of 

 swinging the frail structure away from the 

 thorny stick which threatened its equilibrium. 

 I looked upon it as a very clever piece of engi- 

 neering, for the "Devil's Walking Stick" is a 

 very quick growing plant, and would soon have 

 upset the nest. Judge of my surprise about a 

 week later when I visited the locality and found 

 the nest suspended entirely in the right hand 

 crotch, and the "Devil's Walking Stick" going 

 right up through the space in which the nest 

 had first been built! There were the shreds 

 still hanging which had formed the edge of the 

 original structure, and the new fastenings had 

 of necessity dropped the little house somewhat, 

 so that it hung full half an inch lower than is 

 usual with the habitations of this little bird, 

 but the body of the nest— that is from the tip 



