290 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



and their bubbling song and chatter are unending. 

 What a treat it would be, if we could have what 

 they are saying translated for our understanding! 



The material birds use in building, manifestly 

 must be what their locations afford. As a rule, 

 there is nothing they can use except twigs, leaves, 

 grass, plant fibre, roots, bark, mud, lichens, moss, 

 snake skins, thistle and milkweed down, and cob- 

 webs in the woods; and these same things com- 

 bined with wool, string, rags, papers, horse-hair, 

 and feathers in the fields. Because they must use 

 these things or build no nest, they use them. But 

 their use of them does not prove that if they could 

 go into a store and buy a yard of yellow and red 

 calico and tear it into strips for nest material, they 

 would not be delighted to do so; for by every act 

 of their lives the birds prove that they appreciate 

 colour. 



I am aware of the fact that in all probability 

 that statement will be challenged; but I am ready 

 for the challenge. If birds do not appreciate the 

 gaudy colours on their backs and love to flaunt 

 in the open showing themselves before men, how 

 does it happen that cardinals, orioles, bluejays, 

 bluebirds, goldfinches, rose-breasted grosbeaks, 

 tanagers, and almost without exception our bright- 

 est birds live in the open and are constantly seen; 

 while thrushes, cuckoos, doves, and birds of sombre 

 colour seek the deep wood and slip around as if in 

 hiding? 



