BIRDS’ NESTS. 
95 
the grass or dead leaves about them until 
they hear the whining call of their mother, 
when they gather about her once more. The 
partridge is so earnest in her efforts to dis- 
tract one’s attention, and her chicks so nim- 
ble in hiding, that both are likely to escape, 
even from a person who takes no pity on 
their distress. 
Among those nests which are supported 
beneath are to he included those built on 
cliffs by certain birds of prey, such as the 
eyries of the eagles, aud several kinds con- 
nected with buildings, as that of the robin 
sometimes is. In the bird-boxes we may 
find those of the martins and white-breasted 
swallows, with white eggs, aud sometimes 
those of the bluebirds, with light blue eggs. 
Far more pleasing than all these is the 
pewee’s (or Phajbe-bird’s) nest, which is 
usually placed on top of a pillar on the pi- 
azza, on a beam of a shed or bridge, or on 
the outside of a bafn. The last which I 
examined was a semicircle in its outward 
shape, and Avas attached to the wall of a 
carriage-house, on the beam over the door. 
Its walls were composed of grasses, straws, 
etc., cemented together with mud. Inside 
was horse-hair, one of the commonest mate- 
rials in bird architecture. The outside was 
the most artistic part, being thickly coated 
with green mosses. Another nest on a 
neighboring pillar was circular, and, like 
the first, contained Avhite eggs. 
Of the first class, the remaining nests are 
built in trees or bushes; aud here the range 
is so wide that I can only present a feAV 
typical specimens. Some are saddled to a 
bough, others are placed in a fork, and oth- 
ers in a crotch.* Tbe materials are either 
simply upheld, are plastered to their sup- 
ports, or are wound round them. The least 
artistic are the nests of sticks. Many 
hawks and owls build these more or less 
clumsily, and often rudely, in evergreens, 
where two or three branches leave the 
trunk together. Crows and blue jays build 
very similar structures, though much neat- 
er and more carefully lined, that of the blue 
jay being \ T ery much smaller, and placed 
nearer the ground. Both the fish-hawk and 
bald eagle usually build enormous nests, 
chiefly of sticks, in the top of a tree near 
water. They repair these year after year 
by adding to them, and often get together 
a large cart-load of stuff. In contrast to 
these, the cuckoos put together a few twigs 
in a bush, A’ine, or low tree, and often lay 
their eggs on a platform Avhicli seems al- 
most too frail to support them. You can 
easily see the bluish eggs through the bot- 
tom. So indifferent are the cuckoos to 
architecture that I lia\ r e known one to lay 
* By “saddled” I mean fastened to the back or up- 
per part of a limb. A “ fork,” as the term is here used, 
is a horizontal division ; a “crotch,” the point where 
upward branches separate. 
her eggs on a cotton rag Which was caught 
in the thorns of a barberry bush. Occa- 
sionally one builds a substantial and hollow 
structure for her young, but such cases are 
very rare. 
The thrushes’ nests have already been 
spoken of in earlier numbers of this Maga- 
zine; the robin’s nest is the coarsest of 
them, though in substance a fair type of the 
others, built in trees, except that the oth- 
ers have a greater variety of material, and 
most often no mud. If you are not familiar 
Avith the robin’s work, 1 can safely leaA r e you 
to study it by yourself. You can easily find 
a. specimen in some apple-tree which Avill 
show you what “plaster-saddling” is. The 
other method of saddling is exhibited A r ery 
perfectly in the nest of the wood-pewee and 
that of the humming-bird. The latter is 
exquisite. Inside, its diameter or width is 
only about three-quarters of an inch, but it 
now holds two Avhite eggs, and by-and-by 
must be the nursery for two young. Of its 
shape and immediate position you may 
judge by the accompanying picture. I 
have usually found it in an oak or orchard 
tree within fifteen feet of the ground. The 
walls are composed of the finest materials 
which the vegetable kingdom offers — down, 
silk from seed wrappers, and hair-like fibres; 
the coarsest among them are bits of sweet- 
fern. Outside, it is thickly coated with lich- 
ens, which the male sometimes amuses him- 
self by putting on after the female has laid 
her eggs. It is very substantial. I have 
had photographed for the engraver a speci- 
men Avliich I found in March; it has suffer- 
ed surprisingly little from nine months’ 
exposure to weather. The protective re- 
semblance to surroundings seen in the hum- 
ming-bird’s nest is better exemplified in 
that of the wood-pewee. This nest is much 
larger, though shallower in proportion to 
iffs diameter (of two or three iuclies). It is 
built in a grove on a moss-coA*ered limb, 
and is so coated with lichens as to resemble 
exactly a knot or protuberance of the limb 
itself. I haA r e seen some so ingeniously 
made that they could not bo detected as 
nests from the ground Avhen the birds Avere 
not on them. The eggs in these artistic 
structures are very pretty, being creamy or 
buff, with a few large spots of brown and 
lilac. 
Nearly all our smaller birds, excluding 
the swallows, build a fresh nest every year. 
In doing so they spend from one day to a 
month, a week being the average time. In 
many ways it is unsatisfactory to watch 
them at Avork, it being almost impossible to 
obtain a position where you do not disturb 
the birds, but can see exactly how they use 
tlieir materials. The females are generally 
the chief, and sometimes the sole workers. 
The beginning of their labors is' the most 
puzzling part to us, and perhaps to them. 
