BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
153 
Though jostled most readily by the winds, and in danger of destruction, 
yet, by a wise provision of instinct, their contents are insured against 
accident. This is prevented not so much by the depth of the cavity, as 
by the purse-like contraction of the rim. 
Few structures of bird-architecture are more handsome than the home 
of this little Gnatcatcher, and none so worthily excite onr wonder and 
admiration. Like the nests of the Humming-bird and Wood Pewee, it is 
a perfect model of beauty and design. So cunningly contrived a structure, 
and one so comfortably, durably and tastefully arranged, would doubtless be 
attributed by us to the work of superior beings, were we not acquainted 
with the artificers. In the foregoing particulars, it stands almost unri- 
valled. Like the colors which glow u]3on the bosom of the mother of 
pearl, it must be seen to be fully appreciated. ISTo description, however 
faithfully portrayed, can give an adequate conception of its beauty. But 
we shall make the attempt. Even the picture gives but a meagre idea of 
the elegance of this cosy chamber. Its walls are of felt, closely and com- 
pactly woven, and made of slender stems of grass, the down of thistles, 
spider’s webs, and vegetable-like fibres. As if dissatisfied with such a 
fine piece of mechanism, our little architects must needs go further. 
With a love for the beautiful and picturesque, they almost startle the 
beholder by investing the exterior with a fine stucco-w'ork of bluish-gray 
lichens which serves the two-fold purpose of ornamentation and protection. 
So like a natural excrescence does the nest now ajjpear, that only the ex- 
perienced eye can detect the difference. Compared wdth the size of its 
tiny builder, who measures but four and three-tenths inches from tip of 
bill to caudal extremity, the nest seems hnlky. These structures are, how'- 
ever, by no means uniform in size. A specimen from New Jersey has a 
width of two and seven-eighths inches, and a height of three. Another 
from Texas measures two and five-eighths inches in length, and but two 
and a half in external diameter. The smallest we have seen are from 
Tennessee and California. The former has a wddth of two and a quarter 
inches, and a height of two and five-eighths, while the latter differs there- 
