6 
NESTS AND EGGS OF 
the newly-wedded pair now set out to discover a suitable place for the 
building of a home. This is a matter of considerable moment, often 
requiring the performance of long and extended tours of observation 
and exploration. These reconnoissances generally last for a week, but 
eventually result in the choice of a locality well adapted, as far as 
the essential conditions of shelter and security are concerned, to become 
the depository of a nest. The site generally chosen for this import- 
ant purpose is a tall open woods with a preponderance of ash or oak 
trees ; but where a time-honored orchard is the recijiient of this favor, 
which is sometimes the case, the apple, on account of the many advan- 
tages which it possesses, is preferred above all other fruit-trees. 
The site being mutually agreed upon, the happy pair proceed with 
all possible dispatch and diligence to construct a domicile : the male 
to collect and bring in the necessary materials ; the female, to fix them in 
their proper places, and also to give shape and symmetry to the structure. 
The time devoted to this work varies with the industry of the builders, 
the style of the nest, and the character of the neighborhood. But, where 
the birds are laboring under the most favorable circumstances, the task is 
easily accomplished in five days. 
This admirable piece of bird-architecture, which rivals in beauty and 
symmetry the nest of our little Ruby-throated Humming-bird, is either 
saddled upon a living or dead limb that is horizontal and lichen-clad, or 
else upon the crotch of a bifurcated branch, and is placed above the 
ground at elevations varying from five to thirty feet. According to 
Nuttall, “ the body of the fabric ” occasionally consists of “ wiry grass or 
root fibres but we have yet to meet with a nest Avith “ small branching 
lichens held together with cobwebs and caterpillars’ silk, moistened Avith 
saliva,” as that author remarks. In a structure before us, Avhich is typical in 
its character, small strips of inner bark plucked from trees of chestnut and 
oak, bits of tOA\q and fragments of wool, circularly arranged and compactly 
pressed together, are the prevailing constituents. Externally, it is closely 
iiiA^ested with the bluish-gray crustaceous lichens Avhich are so plentiful 
