62 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
from the silk cotton tree, warm and smooth. When com- 
fort has been provided for, the work of external decoration 
begins. First the whole outside is draped with shreds of 
spiders’ webs. Whether this is done to discourage the red 
ants I cannot say ; but it serves another purpose, for now 
the bird goes about collecting any rubbish it can find 
and sticking it on the glutinous web. Old scraps of 
moss, spiders’ egg-cases, rags of white silk from the 
nests of the red ants, and above all, the sawdust and 
refuse which woodboring caterpillars shovel out of their 
holes, are gathered together and stuck on anyhow, till 
the outside of the little house is as thoroughly disreput- 
able as art can make it. Then it is ready for occupa- 
tion. Lizards cannot get into it, crows do not suspect 
what it is, and if they did, would not know what to 
do with it. The very squirrel is baffled. And now note 
the way the bird behaves. He is skipping about in 
the highest spirits, spreading his tail and flapping his 
wings, singing snatches of an old glee, hovering over a 
flower while his long tongue searches its recesses, or 
peering about a dirty bunch of cobweb for little spiders. 
Suddenly he appears to notice that bunch hanging at 
the end of a branch. He flies straight to it, clings to 
