1'74 ARTISTS AND ARTISANS tN THE t'EATHERED WORLD. 



The bird begins its work by winding some wool or 

 hemp several times around the twig and then tying to 

 that a few pieces of long stalks which, hanging down, 

 serve as a frame-work for the whole building, for be- 

 tween them particles of moss, flakes of wool from the 

 reeds, willows, poplars and thistles, and a good many 

 other things hard to recognize and still harder to de- 

 scribe, are woven in and connected with each other, until 

 the nest assumes the shape of a bag, a long knitted purse 

 or a hanging stocking, with a little tube sideways, as the 

 entrance, near the top. Sometimes the nest contains 

 two openings, and people say that one of them is used to 

 accommodate the rather long tail of the little bird. It is 

 very easy to see that this marvelous structure has at- 

 tracted the attention of men in a marked degree, and we 

 ought not to wonder that all kind of superstitious be- 

 liefs go with it. In Italy these nests are considered abso- 

 lutely sure protection against lightning and hail, when 

 hung over the house door ; in Russia and Poland people 

 boil them in water, and consider this soup a splendid 

 remedy for intermittent fever and rheumatism ; in other 

 countries people are more practical ; they use these nests 

 as stockings and praise their fine qualities, their softness, 

 flexibility and warmth. 



Another no less magnificent nest is built by the long, 

 tailed titmouse (Parus caudatus), which differs, however, 

 from that of the former by the circumstance that it is never 

 hung up freely, but always supported in the fork of 

 some branch, or in the twigs of a thick bush. It is also 

 a very neat and comfortable structure, composed of moss 

 and wool, grass, spider-webs and soft bark, thickly lined 

 with soft feathers, and adorned externally with frag- 

 ments of white lichens. 



It has an oval form, snugly domed over at the top, and 

 a single opening rather high up on one side. Under all 

 circumstances the building birds choose, as an external 



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