102 
NATURE STUDY. 
little alabaster eggs into life and feel the joys of mother¬ 
hood. 
There was an old cloth, nearly black, once a piece of a 
garment, that hung over the line and slowly waved in the 
wind. Just why Madame Phoebe should select this old 
cloth on which to build a nest I cannot tell. I simply 
know that she was original and would listen to no remon¬ 
strances from her lord and master or advice from the neigh¬ 
bors. So here the nest was begun. 
The first mouthful of mud was stuck upon the cloth near 
the top. A little moss was added, and then some more 
mud. Then it all fell to the ground, for the cloth was per¬ 
pendicular. More than once the house fell down, and the 
persistent little builders had to learn by experience that a 
part of the foundation must hang over the other side, like 
a saddle. When that fact was learned, after much inspec¬ 
tion and study, I suspect that Madame had to raise sever¬ 
al more feathers to accommodate the increased size of her 
head. 
The building of the nest went on. It was largely an ex¬ 
periment, for it was something new. Although the foun¬ 
dation was made like a saddle, it was a sort of a side-sad¬ 
dle. Madame was not so advanced as to do anything sa¬ 
voring of immodesty. Besides, she had not forgotten the 
traditions of the family, which for countless generations 
had built their homes upon shelves, wooden or rocky. 
Most of the lower part of the nest was on,one side. Only 
enough projected over the other side to hold the nest on. 
The nest itself was perched above the rope, mostly on the 
side with the shorter limb of the saddle. The heavier side 
tipped the whole structure a little, but the weight of a bird 
in the nest made it horizontal. How the birds learned to 
preserve the balance of the nest as it grew in size is a diffi¬ 
cult problem to solve. It argues for a considerable exer¬ 
cise of intelligence in their little pates. A history in de- 
