50 
BIRD CRADLES. 
day-dozing owl, I found tlie familiar matted felt at the bottom largely ^ inter¬ 
mixed with fragments of snake-skin. Knowing the habits of snakes in the 
casting of their skins, having once or twice found them in the grass, I fell to 
wondering whether it could be a common practice of the black snake or “racer,” 
to climb a tree for the purpose of exuviation. Later on the mystery was solved, 
having learned in my ornithology that the great crested flycatcher considered the 
snake-skin the ne jAus ultra of nest-linings. The nidification of this bird usually 
takes place in the deserted retreat of the woodpecker, and is seldom without its 
complement of one or more snake-skins, which are frequently interwoven in a bed 
of hog-bristles and feathers, rather indicating a peculiar fancy for exuvicE. 
But here, again, who knows but what some stray vireo’s nest—those catch-alls, 
samplers of nature’s nest-textiles—may not have given the flycatcher the hint. 
I have a vireo’s nest in my possession which is 
■i largely composed of snake-skins, and they are fre- 
'■ quently thus found. 
, (i The purple finch, according to some authorities, 
■1 is addicted to a similar whim occasionallj^ Of 
course, either of these exceptional cases may rep- 
resent nothing more than a successful raid on some 
abandoned nest of the flycatcher. 
The toad is said to habitually swallow its cast-off 
skin, in -which case the red-eye must have once 
suiqorised him in the gastronomic act, for in one 
of my analyses of these nests, I discovered an un¬ 
mistakable fragment of one of these skins, tij)ped 
with its tiny pellucid glove. 
The winged seeds of plants are a staple article 
in the harvest for the nests. 
The great order of 
Compositce feathers the cra¬ 
dles of thousands of our birds, 
envelojhng their egg-treas¬ 
ures or fledglings in a bed 
as soft as swan’s down ; the 
plumy seeds of thistle, milk 
weed, dandelion, and lettuce 
being j^robably the most fav¬ 
ored. 
Nuttall gives us a pretty 
picture of the home-building 
whims of the yellow warbler 
—a prize for the cabinet 
truly ! 
“ The nest is extremely neat 
The Dandelion Mystery Solved. 
(A Eedstart nest-biiilding.) 
