292 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



Of the hundreds of nests of whicli I liavc made 

 studies, and picked to pieces after the birds have 

 finished with them, every nest proves that birds, 

 even the shy, shpping, deep wood creatures, avail 

 themselves of bright material wherever possil)le. 

 I have seen summer yellow-birds use so much milk- 

 weed down that their nests fell prey to crows and 

 hawks on account of being so conspicuous. After 

 building a pendent cup, firmly timbered and lashed 

 to a branching limb, red-eyed vireos festoon cob- 

 webs over the front of it; and before a set camera, 

 one bird added fresh cobwebs to a nest from which 

 one of her young had already taken wing. The 

 cobweb was simply draped over the front of the 

 nest, and not used to bind on outer covering or 

 lash a nest to a limb, as cobwebs arc used by fly- 

 catchers and hummingbirds. This nest also had 

 curious tiny seed pods stuck over the front of it, 

 for purely ornamental purposes. 



A small collection of the nests of vireos was sent 

 me from Cuttingsville, Vermont, in 1918. The 

 home of the warbling vireo was gay with the deli- 

 cate, white tissue of the outer bark of birch trees 

 and cobwebs draped over the pale fawn colour of 

 the primary decorations, among which were several 

 bits of newspaper. On one of these, the words, 

 "clock for mantle" could be read distinctly. The 

 house of the red-eye was much the same only 

 whiter; while the yellow-throat used none of the 

 coloured bark, almost completely covering the 



