30 
WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIEDS. 
nence ; but they soon found out that we were harmless, at 
least, and grew reconciled. 
Many a calm hour we spent among the cool, dim aisles of the 
mighty forests, still as the dark trunks around us, watching 
now the Baltimore oriole with coy taste, select a twig to 
hang her cradle from, and when her motherly care was sat- 
isfied that a particular one hung clear beyond the reach of 
the dreaded snake, or mischievous climbers, one and all, — 
that there was a tuft of leaves above it, which would pre- 
cisely shield it from the noontide sun — then commences her 
airy fabric. 
How ingeniously she avails herself of the forks and 
notches to twist the first important thread around! How 
housewife-like she plaits and weaves the grassy fibres ! The 
unmanageable horse-hair, too, is used ; how soberly she plies 
her long, sharp bill and delicate feet ! Now she drops that 
thread as too rotten to be trusted, and reprovingly sends off 
her careless, chattering mate to get another. He is proud 
of his fine coat, and dissipates his time in carolling ; but in 
her prudent creed, sweet songs won't build a home for the 
little folk, and so she very properly makes the idle fellow 
work. 
At last, after a deal of sewing, webbing, roofing, — and 
scolding, too, the while — the house is finished, thatch, door, 
and all. The softest velvet from the muUen stalk must 
line it now ; and then elate upon the topmost bough, she si- 
lently upturns her bill toward heaven, while her mate pours 
forth their joy for labors done, in thrilling gushes ! 
In those old times, sitting upon a gnarled root, I would bend 
for hours over some thronged city of the ants. Why, how 
is this ? Here from the great entrance — roads branch off on 
every side. How clean, and smooth, and regular, they are ! 
See, yonder is a dead limb fallen across the course. Amaze- 
ment ! A tunnel ! A tunnel ! they have sunk it beneath 
the obstruction too heavy for the power of their mechanics • 
Follow the winding track. See, that thick turf of grass ! It 
