96 
HARPER’S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
It is sometimes accomplished by laying 
sticks, twigs, or straws across from branch 
to branch ; sometimes by placing a clump 
of material in the bottom of a crotch or iu a 
fork, and at other times by winding strips 
of bark, fibres, etc., around the neighboring 
twigs. What is then added is pressed or 
twisted into position with the bill. The 
inward shape is preserved, and toward the 
end perfected by the breast as the female 
turns round and round. Materials are some- 
times brought a mile, but ordinarily are 
gathered near their destination. It is very 
pretty to see warblers taking fresh cater- 
pillars’ silk from the new nests ; but some- 
times a rather ghastly effect is produced by 
the caterpillars themselves being carried 
off with their silk, and by their corpses be- 
ing left to dangle about the nest for which 
they have been sacrificed. A majority of 
our smaller birds have four or live eggs in 
one set, sometimes having two or three dif- 
ferent sets iu one season, and lay them from 
day to day. The males usually undertake a 
part of the incubation, feed their sitting 
mates, and cheer them by singing, some- 
times singing at night. Even males with 
such dangerously bright colors as the scar- 
let tauagers occasionally relieve their mates 
during the daytime. The common period 
of incubation is from ten days to a fort- 
night. 
The homes of the tree-nesting finches and 
fly-catchers, those of the tanagers and wax- 
wings, I must pass over. Those warblers 
who build in bushes and trees excel as archi- 
tects, the last artistic production of theirs 
which I remember to have seen being very 
Utr.MMING-BIlt])’8 NEST. 
neatly made of pine needles, and lined with 
the black fibres of a moss. I have had two 
photographed for the engraver, one of the 
common yellow warbler ( Dendrocca (estiva), 
.built in the crotch of a barberry bush, and 
one of the black-throated green warbler ( D . 
vireiis), placed in a fork near the end of a 
pine bough. Both were built near Boston, 
and were finished about the 1st of June. 
They are composed as follows : that of the 
summer yellow bird of slender shreds of 
grass and fibres mixed with silky and wool- 
ly materials, besides a few bits of fine string, 
the whole being lined with a rich dun-color- 
ed plant down ; the black-throated green’s, 
of strips of thin bark, small twigs and stalks, 
pine needles, a few feathers, and bits of pa- 
per, being lined with black and white hairs, 
and with liair-like fibres, which are glisten- 
ing yellow. 
Of the pensile nests, the commonest are 
those of the Baltimore orioles, or golden rob- 
ins (also called “ fire - birds” and “hang- 
nests”), whose long pouches, four 
to eight inches deep, you must 
have seen in an orchard-tree or 
in an elm, for to an observant 
person they are often conspicu- 
ous objects in a village street, 
or even in a city park. They 
are often placed near the end of 
long drooping boughs, and are 
not easily got at from beneath, 
while above they are commonly 
protected by a canopy of leaves. 
They are so common, and have 
been so frequently figured and 
described, that I shall not dwell 
upon them. They are variously 
made up of grasses, fibres, thread, 
wool, worsted, yarn, string, and 
even cloth. The nests of the 
vireos are much less well known. 
They are pensile, rather cup- 
shaped, from one to two inches 
deep, and two or three wide in- 
side, and are usually suspended 
from a fork. The linings are 
never very soft, but are often 
coarse. The eggs are white geu- 
erally, with a few brown spots 
WHITE-EYED YIREO’S NEST. 
