734 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[May ii, 1907. 
BELTED KINGFISHER. 
Length, 12 - 13 incnes, 
Copyright, 1907, by the Macmillan Company. 
seed-pods, lichens, paper, rags, yarn and snake 
skins, are only a part of the bird architect’s list 
of unstable things. 
My first tramping ground was the garden, in¬ 
closing eight acres of varied land, flowers, brush, 
open, plenty of trees, deciduous and evergreen, 
and a little pool of clear water. During the sea¬ 
sons of which I have the record, forty species of 
birds have nested within its borders, and often¬ 
times many pairs of the same species; for ex¬ 
ample, as last year, when the garden sheltered 
five pensile nests of the red-eyed vireo. These 
forty nests were located in the following manner: 
Robin: In vines, hedge and trees. 
Wood thrush: Spruces, bushes. 
Catbird: Syringa bushes and other shrubs. 
Bluebird: Hole in old tree and bird house. 
Wren: Little houses in outbuildings. 
Yellow warbler: Apple tree and elder bushes. 
Maryland yellowthroat: Tall grass and bushes. 
Chat: Barberry bush. 
Redstart: Spruces. 
Tanager: Swamp oak. 
Purple martin: Bird house. 
Barn swallow: Hayloft. 
Red-eyed vireo: Sugar maple, apple tree and birches. 
White-eyed vireo: Beech. 
English sparrow: Everywhere until banished. 
Purple finch: Old quince hedge. 
Goldfinch: Sugar maples. 
Vesper sparrow: Smoke bush. 
Grasshopper sparrow: Linder small spruce. 
Song sparrow: In many places—hedge, bushes, 
ground. 
* Chipping sparrow: Pligh in evergreens, also in 
shrubs. 
Field sparrow: Meadowsweet bush. 
Towhee: On ground under a wild grape tangle. 
Cowbird: Eggs found in nests of a dozen different 
birds, particularly the song sparrows. 
Orchard oriole: Old apple tree. 
Baltimore oriole: Elms on lawn. 
Crow: Top of spruce. 
Kingbird: In pear tree. 
Phoebe: On beams in shed, also on bracket support¬ 
ing the porch. 
Chimney swift: In brick chimney. 
Hummingbird: Cedars, elms, beech, and high in a 
spruce. 
Yellow-billed cuckoo: Wild tangles of vines, etc. 
Flicker: Sassafras and hickory. 
Hairy woodpecker: Hickory. 
Mourning dove: White pines. 
Quail: Under a thick, wild hedge. 
Screech owl: Hollow sassafras. 
Barred owl: Only once; in a sycamore. 
Cedar bird: Old cherry tree. 
The first nest that you will probably find, and 
one that will confront you at every turn, will 
be the robin’s. Common, rough in structure, 
and anything but pretty, it is a type neverthe¬ 
less, being partly made of sticks and lined with 
clay, it is a combination of carpentry and 
masonry. The wood thrush also uses mud in a 
similar manner, but builds more neatly. _ Spar¬ 
rows you will find lodged everywhere—in the 
hedge, under bushes, by thick grass tufts—their 
individual nests being so much alike that it is 
difficult to distinguish them apart. Dried grass 
and fine roots are the chief materials used by 
them, with the exception-of the little chipping 
sparrow, who combines horsehair and pine needles 
with the grasses, which, together with its deli¬ 
cacy and small size, identify the nest. 
The flicker utilizes a soft place in the swamp 
maple, boring his nest hole with great accuracy; 
the yellow warbler and hummingbird strip the 
soft wood that wrapped the big, juicy Osmunda 
ferns in their winter sleep. The warbler mixes 
the fern wool with cobwebs and milkweed flax, 
taking it to the apple tree; while the humming¬ 
bird bears his load to a mossed cedar branch, 
and rounds a two-inch nest, blending it with the 
branch until it looks merely as if lichens had 
encrusted a raised knot hole. Next you will 
admire the work of the weavers, the oriole and 
vireos. The darned basket of the orchard oriole 
is, perhaps, set in the strawberry-apple tree, as 
if to catch its early fruit. He makes his beak 
point his shuttle, as Coues says, antedating Elias 
Howe, who invented a needle with the eye at 
the point, and the Baltimore oriole threads flax 
from old milkweed stalks, gathering his string 
far and near. The Baltimore oriole builds too 
well to work quickly, and the pouch, sometimes 
eight inches deep, swings freely and firmly from 
its branch, so placed as to be safe from above 
and below. 
The vireos make a little pocket (like a stock¬ 
ing heel set between the knitting needles) which 
is fastened firmly in the fork of a small branch. 
Woven into it are papers, scraps of hornets’ nests 
and flakes of decayed wood. The solitary vireo 
adds fur and hair to his, and the red-eyed vireo, 
the wings of moth and other insects, cocoons and| 
snake skins. It was in the nest of this vireo 
that Hamilton Gibson found twisted a bit of 
newspaper, whose single legible sentence read: 
“ * * * have in view the will of God.” 
To go into much detail now may confuse you; 
wholly, and you will find that every bird has a 
description of its haunts, nest and eggs, in its 
particular division. This sketch is only to show 
you the possibilities. There is one more nest that: 
1 must mention—the prettiest thing that you may! 
ever hope to find when on the quest—the lace 
hammock of the parula warbler. You must 
search for it early in June, in remote but rather 
thin woods, but never very far away from run¬ 
ning water. Often it is on a branch that over¬ 
hangs a stream. Sometimes it will be on a slen¬ 
der birch twig and sometimes on the terminal 
spray of the hemlock-spruce. It is suspended 
lightly, like a watch pocket with the opening on 
one side, and made of a delicate lace work from 
the gray-white usnea moss, that grows 011 old 
trees. The whole fabric swaying in the breeze 
is the work of the two little birds with slate-blife 
backs and yellow breasts, who are watching you 
so anxiously. No, you must not take it^now; 
it will keep until they are through with 'it, for 
it is much more durable than it appears. 
The building of the nest will raise many ques¬ 
tions in your mind. Do both birds take part in 
building? Does the female select the site and 
do the work and the male simply supply her| 
with materials? Very pretty tales are told ofj 
the rejection of unsuitable stuff by the particular 
wife of a non-discriminating spouse and the con¬ 
sequent squabble. Alack! Did not the labor 
question, as well as that of the equality of the 
sexes, begin as near to Eden as the building of 
the nest? But in spite of this there are still 
nests. 
Swallows and the Farmer. 
The Biological Survey of the United States 
Department of Agriculture has hit upon a some¬ 
what novel method of aiding the southern cotton 
planter in his war against the boll weevil. As 
is well known this insect invaded the State of 
Texas several years ago and has damaged the 
cotton crop to the extent of millions of dollars 
annually. Despite efforts to stay its increase, it 
is spreading at the rate of about fifty miles a 
year and unquestionably in time will extend its 
ravages into all the cotton States. 
The Survey has been investigating the pest in 
Texas for several years and finds that no fewer 
than thirty-eight species of birds feed upon the 
insect. It is not claimed that birds alone can 
check the spread of the weevil, but it has been 
demonstrated that they are an important help 
which the farmer cannot afford to ignore. Hence 
an appeal is made to the northern farmer to 
aid in the work on the ground that the insect 
enemy of the fanner of every district is the 
common enemy of the country, and that a full 
measure of success is to be obtained only through 
co-operation. The importance to the cotton 
planter also' of colonies of swallows _ i? 
emphasized, and the best means of increasing 
their numbers in the southern States is set forth. 
Among the foremost of the useful allies against 
the boll weevil are swallows. As is well known 
the food of these birds consists almost exclusively 
of insects, and hence to the agriculturist they 
are among the most useful of birds. They have 
been described as “the light cavalry of the avian 
army.” Specially adapted for flight they have 
no rivals in the art of capturing insects in mid 
air, and it is to the fact that they take their 
prey on the wing that their peculiar value to 
the cotton grower is due. 
Other insectivorous birds adopt different methods 
when in pursuit of prey. Orioles alight on the 
cotton bolls and carefully inspect them for wee¬ 
vils. Blackbirds, wrens and flycatchers contri¬ 
bute to the good work, each in its own sphere, 
but when swallows are migrating over the cotton: 
