154 WINGED ROBBERS AND NEST-BUILDERS, 



color of their eggs, or any cavity, either natural or 

 artificial that offers itself, these winged tramps 

 appropriate it, and then, without any upholstering 

 or fixing up they deposit their eggs and rear their 

 young. On the other hand, how many of the 

 birds are not skilled workmen, but are true artists ! 

 That the sense of the beautiful in them is well- 

 developed is evident from the fact that many spe- 

 cies ornament the exterior of the nest with wreaths 

 and rosettes of moss and lichen. The well-known 

 habit of the bower-bird of Australia, that collects 

 objects of brilliant color, such as shells, feathers, 

 etc., arranging and re-arranging them before the 

 entrance of its bazaar bower, is a remarkable in- 

 stance of the real sesthetic taste of birds. The 

 humming-bird, too, is a gay little artist, and no 

 wonder, with its slender needle bill and deft wings 

 which enables it to rest on the air, or dart like an 

 electric spark here and there around its tiny her- 

 mitage, tricking it up with bright bits of moss and 

 fern, plant-down and lichen, and making it a per- 

 fect type of bird architecture. It would be en- 

 trancing to behold such a spectacle. 



There are three or four of the characteristic 

 builders that I wish more particularly to describe 

 to you, the first being the bank swallow or sand 



