BIRD CRADLES. 93 
caution, intelligence, reason and 
economy, discrimination, taste, 
fancy, even its caprice and 
whim, almost of its humor. 
In their arts we may learn 
something of their mental re- 
sources, even as the antiquary dis- 
covers in the remnant decorated rel- 
ics of an extinct people testimonies not 
disclosed by the mummy. To know 
the nidification and nest life of a bird 
is to get the cream of its history, 
We may snap our fingers at vocab- 
ularies and synonyms. 
Even an empty nest is still elo- 
quent with interest. A few of them 
have been gathered about me as I 
write; and how beautiful they are! 
Here is one picked up at random. Not 
a rare specimen from the tropics, but 
an every-day affair of our country 
walks. What an interesting study 
of ways and means and confident 
skill! Hung by its edge from 
a horizontal fork of a maple 
twig, with a third of its cir- 
cumference unsupported, it 
is yet so boldly wrought 
that this very span shall 
serve as the perch of the parent 
bird. Its edge is plainly com- 
pressed, though barely depressed, 
by evident continual use, and con- 
sidering the nature of the materials 
at this portion its stability was perfectly [fs ” 
insured. What nice discrimination in the 
