268 
NESTS AND EGGS OF 
less be found to vary with locality. While engaged in looking for a 
suitable nesting place, the male is very attentive to his partner, and can- 
not hrook her absence. He watches with jealous eye her every movement, 
and follows her in all her journeyings. Though usually quite cowardly, 
he is at these times very brave, and will venture to attack any bird that 
happens near. But as his cowardice is proverbial, he rarely succeeds with 
birds of his own size, and is often compelled to retire from the battle 
discomfited. 
When a tree is chosen, the happy pair proceed to build their loose, 
rickety dwelling upon a forked or horizontal branch, at elevations varying 
from five to seldom more than twenty feet, according to our experience. 
The nest may be compared to a miniature Crow’s. It is mainly composed 
of small sticks and some grasses, artlessly and loosely interlaced, and so 
unsubstantial, that it scarcely survives the season. The cavity is quite 
shallow. The dimensions vary somewhat with the locality, but a specimen 
before us measures seven inches in diameter, and about three in height. 
The cavity is nearly four inches wide, and less than one in depth. The 
construction of such a loose affair ordinarily requires but two days, and 
is the result of the united efforts of both birds, working with commendable 
patience and zeal, but not continuously. 
As soon as the domicile is finished, the female, after a day spent in 
congratulating her lord upon their combined success, proceeds to furnish 
it. This business continues for many days, varying according to the 
number of eggs laid, and the irregularity in time of laying, eggs being 
frequently deposited about the time that others are hatching. Nests are 
often found with a single fresh egg in each, another partly incubated, a 
newly-hatched bird, and one or more young still further advanced. But, 
as a rule, only a single egg is daily deposited. Incubation, in the latitude 
of Philadelphia, often commences when only two eggs are deposited, but 
instances are recorded where such was the case after the first extrusion, 
the female depositing others as the process goes on. This seems like a 
strange fancy of hers, hut evidently shows great forethought and prevision. 
