BIRDS' NESTS 309 



elegant little wool-lined wicker baskets that are used 

 as nests for caged canaries. 



"The long-tailed titmouse, remarkable for its ex- 

 cessive caudal development, which constitutes more 

 than half the total length of its body, lives in the 

 woods during the summer season, and comes into our 

 gardens and orchards only in winter. It is a small 

 bird with a reddish back and white breast. The 

 stomach is tinged with red ; the neck and cheeks are 

 white. 



"Its nest is built sometimes in the fork of a high 

 branch in a clump of bushes, and sometimes in the 

 dense underwood of a thicket, a few feet from the 

 ground ; but it is most often attached to the trunk of 

 a willow or a poplar tree. Its shape is that of a very 

 large cocoon, and its entrance is at one side, about 

 an inch from the top. On the outside it is made of 

 lichens like those that cover the tree, in order to 

 blend with the bark and deceive the eye of the 

 passer-by. Fibers of wool serve to hold all the parts 

 securely together. To make the dome of the nest 

 rain-proof, it is formed of a sort of thick felt com- 

 posed of bits of moss and cobwebs. The inside re- 

 sembles an oven with cup-shaped bottom and very 

 high top, and is furnished with a remarkably thick 

 bed of downy feathers, whereon repose from sixteen 

 to twenty little birds, arranged with careful order 

 in the restricted space no larger, at the most, than 

 the hollow of one 's hand. By what miracle of parsi- 

 monious economy do these twenty little ones with 



