474 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



grass, seaweed, leaves, and similar materiala The foundations 

 are made hj sticks almost as thick as broom-handles, and some 

 two or three feet in length, on which are piled smaller sticks, 

 until a heap some four or five feet in height is made. Interwoven 

 with the sticks are stalks of com and various herbs, the larger 

 sea- weeds and large pieces of grass, the whole mass being a good 

 load for an ordinary cart, and as much as a horse can be reason- 

 ably expected to draw. The bird retains the nest year after year, 

 and, as has been shown from actual observation, the same spot 

 has been occupied for so long a term that the branches of the 

 tree became rotten, and the nest fell to the ground. In this case 

 it is evident that a succession of birds must have occupied the 

 same nest. 



It has been observed that whenever a tree is occupied by the 

 osprey, it dies in a short time, though no one is aware of the 

 precise nature of the injury which kills it. Some persons say 

 that the fish-oil which is spilled by the birds is the cause of 

 death ; but when we remember that there is no better manure 

 than fish, we can hardly believe that the alleged cause is the 

 real one. Other persons think that the real cause of death is the 

 huge mass of decaying vegetable and animal substances which 

 is placed on the branches, and that the drippings from the nest 

 fall into casual interstices of the branches, and gradually kill it 

 from above downwards. So firmly are the materials interwoven, 

 that when a tree falls on which an osprey nest is built, large 

 masses of the nest hold together in spite of the shock. 



The construction of the osprey nest has been described some- 

 what at length, because the manner in which the Purple Grakle 

 becomes a parasite could not be imderstood unless the structure 

 of the nest were comprehended. 



As the sticks of which the foundation of the nest are made 

 are very large, and not regular in form, considerable interstices 

 are left between them, and in such spots the Grakle chooses to 

 nidificate. 



In writing of the osprey, Wilson remarks as follows : " There 

 is one singular trait in the character of this bird which is men- 

 tioned in treating of the Purple Grakle, and which I have had 

 many opportunities of witnessing. The Grakles, or Crow-Black- 

 birds, are permitted by the fish-hawk to build their nests among 

 the interstices of the sticks of which its own is constructed, — 



