248 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



that is popularly called the prickly vine, and which grows in low 

 thickets. The bird is very fond of this smHax and rarely chooses 

 any other tree for the reception of its nest, so that the home of 

 the "White-Eyed Flycatcher is not very difficult to find ; more- 

 over, the bird is so jealous and so bold when engaged in rearing 

 its young, that it betrays the position of the nest by scolding 

 angrily as soon as a human being approaches the thicket, and 

 by dashing violently at the intruder with impotent rage. 



Another pensile species is the Pkaibie Warbler (Sylma 

 minuta), a bird which, as its specific name denotes, is of very 

 small size, not reaching five inches in total length. 



It is a lively little bird, but withal deliberately cool in its 

 movements, flitting about among the foliage and grass with a 

 quick, though jerking, regular movement and yet inspecting 

 every leaf and blade with perfect composure ; chirping feebly all 

 the while, and allowing itself to be watched without betraying 

 any alarm. The nest of this little bird is unusually small, even 

 when the size of the feathered architect is taken into considera- 

 tion, and when dry weighs scarcely a quarter of an ounce. The 

 materials of which it is made are moss, mixed with rotten and 

 very dry wood, fastened together with caterpiUar-silk, and the 

 lining is made of very fine and delicate fibres of grape-vine bark. 



Our last example of American pensile birds is the Pine- 

 Ceeeping Warbler (Sylvia pinus), a pretty little species, which 

 has many of the actions that characterize the titmice, flitting 

 among the branches like these birds, and hanging head down- 

 wards from the twigs while looking for insects. Sometimes it 

 runs along the ground, and is equally active there ; and when 

 disturbed, it flies upwards, and clings to the trunk of the nearest 

 tree, the whole movement being so peculiar that the bird can be 

 distinguished at a long distance. 



The Pine-Creeping Warbler is found in the pine-woods of the 

 Southern States, where it assembles in little flocks of twenty or 

 thirty in number. Its nest is suspended from the horizontal 

 fork of some small branch, and is made of strips of grape-vine 

 bark and rotten wood, tied firmly together with caterpUlar-silk. 

 Sometimes the bird finds a hornet's nest, and rightly considering 

 that the substance of which it is made is the driest and lightest 



