DR. THEODOR NEUMANN. 149 



one day noticed in a tree in his yard a bird's nest of 

 peculiar appearance. Examining it, he found that a pair 

 of wagtails had built a nest almost entirely of clock 

 springs. It was more than four inches across, and per- 

 fectly comfortable for the birds. After the feathered 

 architects had reared their brood, the nest was taken to 

 the museum, where it is preserved as a striking illustra- 

 tion of the skill of birds in turning their surroundings to 

 advantage in building their nests. 



Ross Massler, in his popular magazine, " Aus der 

 Heimath," tells a story of a magpie (Pica caudata) that 

 had been annoyed several times by hunters shooting at 

 its nest, which was on the highest top of a rather high 

 tree. Later on several shots even with bullets had no 

 effect at all on the bird or its nest, and closer examina- 

 tion revealed that the shrewd bird had covered the en- 

 tire floor of its residence with old iron, which it had got 

 for this purpose from a distant foundry. 



Other birds which seem to care more for a warm bed, 

 to which they may retire after the toils of the day, and 

 which are anxious to provide the necessary protection 

 for their offspring at all risks, are not particular in tak- 

 ing what they can get around human dwellings, so that 

 investigations reveal rather ridiculous facts. An in- 

 stance is known where a thrush carried off a lace-cap 

 that was hanging on a clothes-line, and worked it into 

 the sides of its nest ; and wigs of venerable judges or 

 professors have sometimes been stolen from the very 

 heads of their dignified wearers by eager birds, and after 

 long search found again as the nesting-place of some 

 songster or the cradle of its young. 



The next important questions are : How do our little 

 artists go to work ? What do we see and learn when we 

 observe them at work? Which one of the two sexes is 

 the designer, which the builder, which the furnisher of 

 the new household 1 How long does it take to finish the 



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