178 ARTISTS AND ARTISANS IN THE FEATHERED WORLD. 



and flexible grass, knit or woven in a thousand direc- 

 tions, partly passing over the branch to which the nest is 

 hung, then carried down to the very bottom of the bag, 

 so as to support the structure in the firmest possible man- 

 ner. Nilson once detached one of those fibres and 

 found it thirteen inches long, and in that distance thirty- 

 four times hooked through and returned, winding round 

 and round the nest. No wonder that a lady to whom he 

 exhibited this edifice remarked that the orchard orioles 

 might learn to darn stockings. The size and form of the 

 nest may vary greatly, according to the climate in which, 

 the bird lives, and the kind of tree on which its home is 

 placed. Should the nest be suspended to the firm, stiff 

 boughs of any strong-branched tree, it is comparatively 

 shallow ; but if it is hung to the long and slender twigs 

 of the weeping willow, the nest is made much deeper 

 and of slighter texture. These long pendent branches 

 have a large sweep in the wind and make this variation 

 necessary, in order to prevent the eggs or young from be- 

 ing thrown out of their home by the swaying of the 

 boughs in the wind. Male and female build the nest to- 

 gether. One comes flying with a long thread or stalk in 

 its bill and holds firmly on the branch, perhaps gluing 

 it on by means of some saliva, while the other grasps the 

 hanging end of the thread and flies around both parts of 

 the fork with it several times, thus making a foundation, 

 a kind of a hammock,, deeper or more shallow, between 

 the two prongs of the fork and then weaves in more 

 material, stalks, feathers, wool and so on, which the 

 female arranges in very skillful manner, so as to give the 

 whole structure depth, roundness and finish. 



Allow me to point out to you only one or two more 

 examples of woven nests which necessarily attract the in- 

 terest of any attentive observer on account of their 

 strange shape. One of them is the nest of the blue gnit- 

 gnit (Caereba cyanea). 



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