18 
NESTS AND EGGS OF 
Such is the homogeneity of its texture, that once seen and recognized, 
it can never he forgotten or confounded. A nest from Texas is the exact 
counterpart of a similar structure from Pennsylvania, or of one from 
Michigan. The abundance of the particular species of grass out of which 
these birds construct their homes, and the facility 'with -which it is obtain- 
able in localities remote from each other, conspire to produce the resem- 
blances which are found to exist. 
Plate IV exhibits a nest of this species which was obtained in the 
vicinity of Germantown, Pa., during the summer of 1880. It was sus- 
pended from the branches of a pear-tree, in the manner shown in the 
drawing, at an elevation of forty feet from the ground. It is built exte- 
riorly of a peculiar kind of long, tough and flexible grass, which is 
common in Pennsylvania. The material is woven through and through in 
a very wonderful manner, and with as much neatness and intricacy as if 
actually done by a needle. It is hemispherical in shape, and open at the 
top. The external diameter is four inches, and height two and a half 
inches ; the cavity is two and a half inches wide, and two and three- 
quarters in depth. The color of the outside is yellow, while that of the 
inside is a deep brownish-red. 
Another specimen which the writer possesses from the same locality, 
is built of the same material, more highly colored interiorly, hut less so 
exteriorly. It is pouch-shaped, and measures two and a half inches in 
internal diameter, and four and a half inches in depth. The length is 
flve inches, and the external diameter three inches. When in position^ 
this nest was so placed that the short spurs of the pear upon which it was 
built, with their beautiful green wreaths of leaves, met and roofed it over, 
thus constituting a natural covering for the protection of the young during 
the prevalence of inclement weather. 
Dr. Brewer describes a nest taken by Mr. Brandigee in Berlin, C’onn. 
This structure was elaborately and skilfully woven of long green blades of 
grass, lined on the inside with hits of yarn, animal wool, and a woolly sub- 
stance of purely vegetable origin. In external diameter and height it 
