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Bird - Lore 



The nest rested among the top limbs of a little brush-pile, and was just 

 two feet above the ground. Some young shoots had grown up through the 

 brush and their leaves partly covered the nest from view. It had an extreme 

 breadth of ten inches and was five inches high. In its construction two small 

 weed-stalks and eleven slender twigs were used. The nest was made mainly of 

 sixty-eight large leaves, besides a mass of decayed leaf -fragments. Inside 

 this bed was the inner nest, two and a half inches wide, composed of strips 

 of soft bark. Assembling this latter material I found that when compressed 



A VEERY ON ITS NEST 

 Photographed by J. M. Schreck 



with the hands it was about the size of a baseball. Among the decaying 

 leaves near the base of the nest three beetles and a small snail had found a home. 



The Veery, in common with a large number of other birds, builds a nest 

 open at the top. The eggs, therefore, are often more or less exposed to the Crow, 

 the pilfering Jay, and the egg-stealing red squirrel. This necessitates a very 

 close and careful watch on the part of the owners. At times it may seem that 

 the birds are not in sight, and that the eggs are deserted, but let the observer 

 go too near and invariably one or both old birds will apprize him of their 

 presence by voicing their resentment in loud cries of distress. 



The Veery is not among the first-comers in spring, but appears in the 

 United States from its winter home in the tropics about the first of May. 

 The species is then scattered during the summer from Colorado to Labrador, 

 where Audubon mentions finding it; but it is rarely seen or heard south of 

 New York City and Lake Huron, except in the mountains, until it returns, 



