102 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



use it as a lashing to fasten his nest had sHpped his 

 head through a loop in the string, so fashioned 

 that when he had pulled it to slip it off the twig 

 it became a veritable noose, which grew tighter 

 with his struggles until it had choked him to death. 



As this oriole and the robin are the only examples 

 I recall having seen of birds trapped in nest 

 material, when almost every nest visited has hair, 

 string, and plant fibre in which they easily could 

 entangle their heads or feet, I deem these isolated 

 cases excellent proof that the birds are extremely 

 deft in the business of building; and it is one of the 

 rarest experiences of the woods to find a bird in 

 difficulty through its awkwardness in handling its 

 building material. 



The nest of a scarlet tanager is a beautifully 

 built structure, placed, in comparison with the 

 average locations of other birds, at extreme heights. 

 I have not examined many of them, but all I 

 ever have seen at close range or observed through 

 glasses were neat and clean, giving every evidence 

 that the old birds emptied the cloaca and carried 

 away the excrement, as is almost the universal 

 rule. In climbing to the heights of a tanager nest 

 one day to make a record of the state of its prog- 

 ress, one of my field assistants reported to me 

 that one of the nestlings, perhaps four or five days 

 from the shell, was in serious trouble which he 

 thought I might relieve; so I told him to slip his 

 fingers under the feet of the little bird so that it 



