266 Life and Iinmortality. 
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD’S NEST. 
Located in a Field of Timothy. 
symmetrical in contour, and so quaintly, deftly woven, that 
the eye never tires in looking at it, nor the mind in contem- 
plating its wonderful mechanism. Broad ribbons of grasses 
are its composing materials, and eight of them are so woven 
into the nest as to securely fasten it to the tall typhas in the 
summit of which it was placed. 
But a more clever nest of these birds, and one that is as 
unique in shape as it is in texture and composition, was found 
in the summer of 1879 in the vicinity of Philadelphia. It was 
built in a field of timothy, many of the stalks of which being 
wrought into the fabric. Its shape is that of an inverted 
cone, and so beautifully, symmetrically and compactly put 
together is it, that one could hardly credit the builders with 
