THE CITY OF 'THE BIRDS. 93 



work among these finches that makes fhem a well 

 represented successful family. 



Speaking of certain characteristics shown in the 

 make-up of nests of several species of warblers, 

 and the way they have of sometimes departing 

 from the usual style of building, I am reminded to 

 describe a bit of bird architecture which puzzled 

 me for a long time. This nest, nearly a foot from 

 the ground, is lodged among and supported by the 

 stout culms of a dense tussock of herd's grass, 

 over which hangs a sheltering branch of a cornel 

 bush. The quite bulky outside structure is clum- 

 sily put together and is composed of coarse pieces 

 of grass and weed stalks, with dead leaves woven 

 in or glued here and there about the walls ; but 

 the builder gradually refined her work as she 

 approached the inner nest. With wings for cal- 

 lipers, a bill for a shuttle, and her body and eye 

 for line and rule, the bird, with finer, more 

 flexible material, wove and pressed it into a per- 

 fect circle, till the cup-like cavity, two and three- 

 fourths inches in depth, and the same in diameter, 

 is, at last, exquisitely finished and finely uphol- 

 stered with elastic grass strips and horse hairs. 

 In this dainty hollow rest three pink-tinted eggs, 

 marked with a wreath of reddish brown blotches 

 about the crown, and with spots of the same 

 color sparsely distributed over the entire surface. 

 The nest seems not to be made on the Dendroica 



