136 
NESTS AND EGGS OE 
but, by a fertile fancy, it can be construed into a variety of sounds. The 
syllables are raj^idly enunciated only when the bird is squatting on a bush 
or fence, or any other object near the ground, but never while in flight. 
It is always heard at night. As the day begins to dawn, it measurably 
diminishes in frequency and intensity, and Anally ceases altogether. The 
absence of song while on the wing may be accounted for by the fact that 
the birds are such vigorous feeders, and are so absorbed with the busi- 
ness before them, that they have neither the time nor the disposition to 
indulge in such pastime. Besides, the wide-open position of the mouth 
which is assumed while sailing through the air, is hardly one which would 
favor a free exercise of the vocal powers. When in a restful state, the cry 
is perhaps the call which the sexes address to each other, or it may be 
interpreted sometimes as the signal for the resumption of the night’s 
carousal after the day-sleeji is over. 
For nearly two weeks after their appearance the sexes, although 
already paired, continue to sleep the daylight away, and spend the night- 
time in feasting and revelling. It is not until the middle of May that 
they become alive to the business which has called them from the land of 
the agave and loblolly-tree. With due diligence, and with but little time 
spent in ^preliminaries, they seek themselves out a spot for a home, where 
they construct, if at all, the merest apology of a nest. By a prostrate and 
decayed log, usually where the deepest shadow prevails, the female is wont 
to deposit her eggs. A slight concavity is ordinarily scooped out by her, 
in Eastern Pennsylvania, and lined with decayed wood or dried leaves. 
In other localities, and, to some extent, in the writer’s own State, she 
does not even go to this trouble, but dejposits her treasures, without thought- 
of what she is doing, upon the ground. AVhether they rest upon a few 
loose leaves, or on the bare earth, is all the same to her. Having chosen 
her humble home, the female begins immediately to lay her first egg. 
This is followed on the ensuing day by another, and this completes her 
nest-complement. Incubation is at once assumed by the lady-bird, and 
seems to be her exclusive business for the space of fourteen or fifteen 
