18609. | 
the restitution of the quiet and happy 
condition of monogamy.” 
Let me not forget to mention the 
nest under the mountain ledge, the 
nest of the common pewee, — a modest 
mossy structure, with four pearl-white 
eggs, — looking out upon some wild 
scene and overhung by beetling crags. 
After all has been said about the elab- 
orate, high-hung structures, few nests 
perhaps awaken more pleasant emotions 
in the mind of the beholder than this 
of the pewee, — the gray, silent rocks, 
with caverns and dens where the fox 
and the wolf lurk, and just out of their 
reach, in a little niche, as if it grew 
there, the mossy tenement! 
Nearly every high, projecting rock in 
my range has one of these nests. Fol- 
lowing a trout stream up a wild moun- 
tain gorge, not long since, I counted 
five in the distance of a mile, all within 
easy reach, but safe from the minks and 
the skunks and well housed from the 
storms. In my native town I knowa 
pine and oak clad hill, round-topped, 
with a bold, precipitous front extending 
half-way around it. Near the top, and 
along this front or side, there crops out 
a ledge of rocks unusually high and 
cavernous. One immense layer projects 
many feet, allowing a person, or many 
persons, standing upright, to move 
freely beneath it. There is a delicious 
spring there, and plenty of wild, cool air. 
The floor is of loose stone, now trod 
by sheep and foxes, once by the Indian 
and the wolf. How I have delighted, 
from boyhood, to spend a summer day 
there, or take refuge there from a sud- 
den shower! Always the freshness 
and coolness, and always the delicate 
mossy nest of the Phcebe-bird! The 
bird keeps her place till you are within 
a few feet of her, when she flits to a 
near branch, and, with many oscillations 
of her tail, observes you anxiously. 
Since the country has become settled 
this pewee has fallen into the strange 
practice of occasionally placing its nest 
under a bridge, hay-shed, or other arti- 
ficial structure, where it is subject to all 
kinds of interruptions and annoyances. 
When placed thus, the nest is larger 
Bird’s-Nests. 
711 
and coarser. I know a hay-loft be- 
neath which a pair has regularly placed 
its nest for several successive seasons. 
Arranged:along on a single pole, which 
sags down a few inches from the floor- 
ing it was intended to help support, 
are three of these structures, marking 
the number of years the birds have 
nested there. The foundation is of 
mud with a superstructure of moss, 
elaborately lined with hair and feathers. 
Nothing can be more perfect and ex- 
quisite than the interior of one of these 
nests, yet a new one is built every sea- 
son. Three broods, however, are fre- 
quently reared in it. 
The pewees, as a class, are the best 
architects we have. The king-bird 
builds a nest altogether admirable, 
using various soft cotton and woollen 
substances, and sparing neither time 
nor material to make it substantial and 
warm. The green-crested pewee builds 
its nest in many instances wholly of 
the blossoms of the white-oak. The 
wood pewee builds a neat, compact, 
socket-shaped nest of moss and lichens 
on a horizontal branch. There is never 
a loose end or shred about it. The 
sitting bird is largely visible above the 
rim. She moves her head freely about 
and seems entirely at her ease, —a cir- 
cumstance which I have never observed 
in any other species. The nest of the 
great-crested flycatcher is seldom free 
from snake skins, three or four being 
sometimes woven into it. 
About the thinnest, shallowest nest, 
for its situation, that can be found is that 
of the turtle dove. A few sticks and 
straws are carelessly thrown together, 
hardly sufficient to prevent the eggs 
from falling through or rolling off. The 
nest of the passenger pigeon is equally 
hasty and insufficient, and the squabs 
often fall to the ground and perish. The 
other extreme among our common birds 
is furnished by the ferruginous thrush, 
which collects together a mass of ma- 
terial that would fill a half-bushel meas- 
ure; or by the fish-hawk, which adds 
to and repairs its nest year after year, 
till the whole would make a cart-load. 
The rarest of all nests is that of the 
