24 
NESTS AND EGGS OF 
bark of the flax, lichens, weeds, wrapping string, carpet rags, patches of 
cotton or wool, are a few of the many articles which are fonnd on the 
outside; while slender grasses, fibres of bark, fine rootlets and horse-hairs 
constitute the inner arrangement. 
A typical structure before us is rather loosely built exteriorly, but 
increases in compactness towards the interior, where the materials are more 
closely intermingled. The frame-work of this nest is composed of herba- 
ceous stems, chiefly of the wheat and pigweed, large quantities of fibrous 
bark of a white, satiny lustre, and leaves of the oak, apple, pear, etc. 
The inside is formed of fine grasses, quite artistically and intricately 
laid in position. The cavity is beautifully symmetrical, and measures 
three inches in width, and two and a half in depth. The outside is five 
inches at the base, but contracts to four and a half at the mouth. The 
height is about four inches. This nest was obtained in the neighborhood 
of Chestnut Hill, Pa., June 15th, 1872. 
Another structure which the writer obtained in the same locality, only 
a few yards distant from the foregoing, differs slightly from it in form, 
but largely in composition. It is built of compressed stems of wheat, 
numerous and rather large scraps of printed paper, a few herbaceous 
plants, all closely compacted and curiously intermingled. Within, there 
is an inner fabric, secured to the former in a neat and substantial manner, 
and composed of dark stems and leaves of various species of grass, besides 
a small quantity of fine roots. The cavity is less regular than that of the 
other, and conspicuously shallow. It measures three inches in diameter 
and two in dejjth. The basal diameter is five inches, which is nearly the 
width at the mouth. The vertical thickness is three and a half inches. 
The Plate represents a very beautiful nest which was obtained in 
Southern New Jersey, in the summer of 1879. It was placed upon a 
cherry-branch, as shown in the drawing, at an elevation of fifteen feet 
from the ground. The outside consists of fine lichens, stems of grasses, 
wrapping string, roots, tassels of the oak and chestnut, and some mosses ; 
the inside, of fine lichens, dried catkins of the oak, but largely of slender 
