WAYS OF NATURE 



hard to find. I have been told of another robin's 

 nest upon the outside of which the bird had fastened 

 a wooden label from a near-by flower-bed, marked 

 " Wake Robin." Still another nest I have seen built 

 upon a large, showy foundation of the paper-like 

 flowers of antennaria, or everlasting. The wood 

 thrush frequently weaves a fragment of newspaper 

 or a white rag into the foundation of its nest. " Evil 

 communications corrupt good manners." The 

 newspaper and the rag-bag unsettle the wits of the 

 birds. The phoebe-bird is capable of this kind of 

 mistake or indiscretion. All the past generations of 

 her tribe have built upon natural and, therefore, 

 neutral sites, usually under shelving and overhang- 

 ing rocks, and the art of adapting the nest to its 

 surroundings, blending it with them, has been 

 highly developed. But phcebe now frequently 

 builds under our sheds and porches, where, so far 

 as concealment is concerned, a change of material, 

 say from moss to dry grass or shreds of bark, would 

 be an advantage to her ; but she departs not a bit 

 from the family traditions ; she uses the same 

 woodsy mosses, which in some cases, especially 

 when the nest is placed upon newly sawed timber, 

 make her secret an open one to all eyes. 



It does indeed often look as if the birds had very 

 little sense. Think of a bluebird, or an oriole, or a 

 robin, or a jay, fighting for hours at a time its own 

 image as reflected in a pane of glass; quite exhaust- 

 5 



