150 
FINDING NATURE’S TREASURES 
“No,” he replied. “There are no eggs in it. That lit¬ 
tle bird is Mr. Verdin. He did not build that nest for 
Mrs. Verdin. He built it for himself, and not for Mrs. 
Verdin to lay eggs in. He built it so that he would have 
a quiet place to sleep in at night and to rest in during 
the day. Alone in his nest, he does not have to listen to 
crying baby birds. It is also a warm, dry place for him in 
the winter time.” 
“Well, how does Mrs. Verdin take care of her babies?” 
asked Fred. “Doesn't she have a nest for them?” 
“Oh, yes. She has a nest somewhere near,” said Uncle 
Jack. “Her nest is like this one, only it is larger. In the 
bottom is a pocket for the babies so they cannot fall out.” 
Marylee pushed into the bush so that she was close 
to the nest. “It is built of little leaves and stems of 
dried weeds,” said she. 
“Yes, the verdin uses almost anything that is easy to 
get to build its nest,” said Uncle Jack. “It does one 
clever thing that very few other birds do. It uses spider 
webs around the nest to hold it together.” 
After a little while Marylee said thoughtfully, “We 
are learning many strange things. We have already 
found something that had wings and could fly. We 
thought it was a bird. But you told us it was a mam¬ 
mal, called a bat. Then we thought we had found a 
bird’s nest, but there was a mouse in it with her babies. 
Now we have found another nest that looks like the nest 
of a mouse, but it belongs to a father bird.” 
“Marylee does not know what to believe,” said Uncle 
Jack, as he laughed and patted her on the shoulder. “You 
