158 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 
When horse hair is to be found, the little chipping 
bird (Spizella socialis) builds largely of this material ; 
hence the bird is known in many localities only by the 
name of hair bird. The nests of these birds are usually 
exquisitely fashioned, the materials being so deftly and 
perfectly intertwined that the inside of the nest when 
detached from the coarse surroundings will stand rough 
handling without injury; one can closely judge the 
color of the cattle or horses kept on the farm premises 
by the lining of these miniature nests. 
Those finches and thrushes which nest in trees usually 
select prongs or forks of branches wherein to place the 
nest, commencing at the bottom of the structure with 
coarse material and refining as they proceed; but the 
orioles, vireos, and a few of the warblers fasten the 
upper edges of the nest to the horizontal fork of a 
branch or twig, so that when finished the structure is 
suspended from, instead of resting on, a support. 
Although these latter are all pensile nests, the orioles 
are the only ones that are swinging. This class of birds 
are the finest architects, and exercise great ingenuity, 
often to such a degree as to place them high in the class 
of intelligent creatures. 
A friend tells me that a pair of orioles built in an 
elm on his lawn, but that just after or before the eggs 
were deposited one of the branches supporting the nest 
was by some mishap split off. To remedy this accident 
the birds found a piece of strong twine and securely 
fastened one side of the structure to another limb, and 
then raised a brood of birds in their repaired house. 
