286 HOIMING ^VITH THE BIRDS 



with cobweb fastenings. All tliese nests appear 

 like small knots on the limbs where they are placed. 

 All of them are wonderful examples of the highest 

 art in nest building and perfect examples of pro- 

 tective colouration. 



The nests of warblers are tiny, hair-lined cups, 

 while goldfinches and indigo birds build deep cups 

 of many different fine materials in crotches or 

 where small twigs branch. The yellow-breasted 

 chat builds in the same manner using slightly 

 coarser materials. She is credited with introduc- 

 ing an occasional cast snake skin, as do the wood 

 thrush and crested fly-catcher. 



No birds build lovelier nests than the vireo 

 family, which lash a perfectly round cup by its 

 rim at the intersection of small twigs, and then 

 deliberately decorate its exterior with spider-webs 

 in clots, and the finest outside birch peelings like 

 silk tissue. 



So lavish are these birds in the use of cobweb 

 festoons that the possibility is suggested that they 

 are intended to trap tiny flies and insects. 



Orchard orioles use lengths of grass for their 

 pendent purse; Baltimores, plant fibre and string. 

 As birds increase in size, they use heavier material 

 up to the big, coarse structures of hawks, herons, 

 or eagles. 



Among the "lilies" of the bird field that neither 

 "toil" nor "spin" are the males of marsh and 

 water birds that are ground builders, such as the 



