OR, PLAIN 



and gather a profusion of leathers 

 from the poultry-yard to line its 

 nest. This cradle for its young, 

 whether under our tiles in March 

 or in July, when the parent-bird 

 3 



is panting in the common heat of 

 the atmosphere, has the same 

 provisions made to afford warmth 

 to the brood ; yet this is a bird 

 that is Little affected by any of the 

 extremes of our crmiate. The 

 wood pigeon and the jay, though 



4. 



404. 



they erect their fabrics in the tall 

 underwood in the open air, will 

 construct them so slightly, and 

 with such a scanty provision of 

 materials, that they seem scarcely 



TEACHING. 113 



adequate to support their broods, 

 and even their eggs may almost 

 be seen through the loosely-con- 

 nected materials ; but the gold- 

 finch, 4, that inimitable spinner, 

 the Arachne of the grove, forms 

 its cradle of fine mosses and 

 lichens, collected from the apple 

 or the pear-tree, compact as 

 felt, lining it with the down of 

 thistles besides, till it is as warm 

 as any texture of the kind can 

 be, and it becomes a model for 

 beautiful construction. The gol- 

 den-crested wren^ 5, a minute 

 creature, perfectly unmindful of 

 any severity in our winter, and 

 which hatches its young in J une, 



5 



405. 



the warmer portion of our year, 

 yet builds its most beautiful nest 

 with the utmost attention to 

 warmth ; and interweaving smali 

 branches of moss with the web of 

 the spider, forms a closely-com- 

 pacted texture nearly an inch in 

 thickness, lining it with such a 

 profusion of feathers, that sinking 

 deep into this downy accumula- 

 tion it seems almost lost itself 

 when sitting, and the young, 

 when hatched, appear stilled with 



