NESTING HABITS OF BIRDS. 
ca 
An interesting feature of bird life is their nesting 
habits. The general plan characterizing each species is 
often so modified by place and circumstance, that in 
many instances the plan seems to be abandoned and a 
new one substituted. Some of the swallows that for- 
merly nested almost exclusively in caves and in hollow 
trunks of trees, now build in chimneys, or in colonies 
under the eaves of barns or other out-buildings. As 
the country grows older and the hollow stumps disap- 
pear from meadows and pasture fields, the blue birds 
are obliged to use other hollow places, sometimes knot 
holes in houses and barns, and when unmolested by 
sparrows they will often come and build in the little 
bird houses attached to trees and poles near our dwell- 
ings. Many of the warblers have left the deep forests 
and now come to the orchards, lawns and gardens to 
rear their young; the blue jays also now seek the trees 
near the habitations of men; some of the fly catchers 
more frequently nest in sheds or under bridges than, as 
formerly, on rocks. 
The finches (fringillide) seldom place the nest above 
a dozen feet from the earth, though a majority of the 
family nest on the ground. The tree and chipping 
