BIRDS' NESTS. 
515 
birds seem to like to return to the same trees — some of the ol-der 
elms and maples are regularl}^ occupied every summer as a mat- 
ter of course. 
There is another fact which strikes one in looking at these nests 
about the village : the birds of different feathers show a very- 
marked preference for building in maples. It is true these trees 
are more numerous than others about our streets, but there 
are also elms, locusts, and sumachs mingled with them, enough, 
at least, to decide the question very clearly. This afternoon we 
counted the nests in the different trees as we passed them, with a 
view to this particular point, and the result was as follows : the 
first we came to were in a clump of young trees of various kinds, 
and here we found nine nests, one in a locust, the other eight in 
maples. Then following the street with trees irregularly planted 
on either side, a few here, a few there, we counted forty-nine 
nests, all of which were in maples, although several elms and 
locusts were mingled with these ; frequently there were sev- 
eral nests in the same maple. Next we found one in an elm ; 
then fourteen more in maples, and successively as follows : one in 
a yellow willow ; eleven in maples ; six in a row of old elms reg- 
ularly inhabited every season, and as usual, an oriole nest among 
these ; one in a lilac-bush ; one in a mountain-ash ; eleven in ma- 
ples ; one in an elm ; one in a locust ; six in maples ; one in a 
balm of Gilead ; two in lilac-bushes ; two in elms, one of them 
an oriole nest, and ten in maples. Such was the state of things 
in the principal streets through which we passed, making in all 
one hundred and twenty-seven nests, and of these, eighteen were 
in various kinds of trees ; the remaining one hundred and nine 
were in maples. 
