72 HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



the plants were growing was just what she needed 

 — and so handy, too, only a few feet from the tree 

 she had selected in which to build her mud domicile. 

 She had already carried off two of the plants, with 

 a quantity of the earth, before I caught her at the 

 mischief. Being an early riser she had the advantage 

 of me. I had the plants moved to the piazza amid her 

 scolding and protesting. Her mate, too, attracted by 

 her clatter, came and added his protest. I left the two 

 pots of earth from which she had abstracted the plants, 

 and took a seat to watch the denouement. She eyed 

 me pretty closely. Seeming to satisfy herself that I 

 had no hostile intentions, she returned to the pots I 

 had left, and rapidly proceeded with the building, using 

 her breast and feet for a trowel. She may have worked 

 an hour in this way, and then I saw no more of her 

 until towards evening, when she finished up her work 

 by lining the nest with a few mouthfiils of coarse, dry 

 grass. 



Only a few rods distant another robin was building 

 with entirely different material. For the main body 

 of the structure she used fine fibrous roots and twine ; 

 she then added clean damp moss {sphagnum) instead of 

 mud, which she must have gone at least a mile to ob- 

 tain. She interwove long horse-hair and fine dry grass 

 to hold the inoss in place. It took her four or five 

 days to complete the structure, whereas the mud nest 

 was finished the same day it was commenced. 



As far as I have been able to ascertain, the male 



