514 
RURAL HOURS. 
unobsei’ved. As for the numerous swallow tribe, their nests are 
never found now-a-days, in trees. 
Of all these regular summer visitors, robin builds the largest 
and most conspicuous nest ; he will often pick up long strings, 
and strips of cloth' or paper, Avhich he interweaves with twigs and 
grass, leaving the ends hanging out carelessly ; I have seen half 
a dozen paper cuttings, eighteen inches long, drooping like stream- 
ers in this way, from a robin’s nest. The pensile nest of the oriole 
is more striking and peculiar, as well as much more neat than any 
other. Specimens of all the various kinds built in trees are now 
plainly seen in the branches ; many have no doubt fallen, but a 
good number have kept their place until to-day, through all the 
winter storms. We amused ourselves this afternoon with looking 
after these nests in the trees as we passed along the different streets 
of the village. 
All these village visitors seem a very sociable race : they gen- 
erally collect in little neighborhoods, half a dozen families in ad- 
joining trees, leaving others for some distance about them unten- 
anted. It is pleasant, also, to notice how frequently they build 
near houses, about the very doors and windows, as though out of 
friendliness to man, while other trees, quite as good as those cho- 
sen, are standing vacant a little farther off. In several instances 
this afternoon, we saw two, three, and even four nests in one tree, 
shading the Avindows of a house ; in very many cases, the three or 
four trees before a house Avere all tenanted ; Ave observed a cot- 
tage Avith three little maples recently planted in the door-yard, 
and so much trimmed that they could scarcely boast a dozen 
branches between them, yet each had its large robin’s neat. The 
