152 
NESTS AND EGGS OE 
streams, and in low, damp situations, are sometimes chosen. There seems 
to be no particular fancy for one tree more than another, provided it be 
lichen-clad. Those whose branches are thus ornamented, the oak especially, 
will be found to be more frequently favored. Instances are known, how- 
ever, of nests being placed upon the maple, a tree remarkable for its 
dearth of such vegetation. Having chosen the site, the erection of a 
dwelling is next in order. Accordingly, the pair set about this business. 
The time chosen for the work is generally the month of May, when 
insect-life runs riot, and mother earth is ablaze with a thousand floral 
beauties, the free-will offering of the queen that now presides. From its 
dawn to its close, these curious structures may be seen in various stages 
of completion, with eggs and without, tenantless and occupied. Specimens 
from Texas, with egg-comj)lements, have been found on or near the 
fifteenth, which had doubtless been commenced two weeks before. Others 
from New Jersey and Pennsylvania contained incubated eggs as late as 
the twenty-eighth, while one from Eastern Tennessee with two fresh eggs 
was found on the sixth of the month following. But this may have been 
a case where the early efforts of the birds to nest had been prevented by 
circumstances beyond their control. Reports from the extreme northern 
and western limits of the range of these birds point to the same con- 
clusion. 
The height which these nests occupy above the ground varies with 
the locality. In some places they seldom attain a greater elevation than 
ten feet, but, in the majority of cases, this limit is exceeded, and the 
heights of fifty, and even sixty feet, are reached. There is less variation 
in form noticeable, their shape being generally that of a truncated cone. 
One nest before us from the South differs somewhat from this figure, and 
may be pronounced as inversely conical. The position, too, is quite uni- 
form. Most of them are placed among slender branches, to which they 
are woven by the ingenuity of the architects, and, although non-pensile, 
are the sport of every breeze. But so securely are they fastened, that to 
dislodge them from their moorings, is a matter of no little difficulty. 
