Field, Forest and Farm; Things Interesting to Young Nature-Lovers, Including Some Matters of Moment to Gardeners and Fruit-Growers (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1919. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER LVI BIBDS' NESTS 'TT is in the building of nests destined for the rearJL ing of a family of young ones that the bird shows in a remarkable way that wonderful faculty which enables the little creature to accomplish, without previous training, results that would seem to require the intervention of reasoned experience. "These adepts in bird-nest architecture have talents of the most varied sort. There are diggers, who scoop out a hollow in the sand; miners, who excavate a little cell to which a long and narrow passage gives access; carpenters, who bore into the trunk of a worm-eaten tree; masons, who work with mortar made of earth tempered with saliva; basketmakers, who weave together small twigs and fine roots; tailors, who with a filament of bark for thread and the beak for needle sew a few leaves together into a cornet for holding the mattress on which the young brood will rest; workers in felt, who make a fabric of down, hair, or cotton, that rivals our own similar products; and builders of fortresses, who protect their nest with an impenetrable thicket as a rampart. "The goldfinch, that pretty little red-headed bird which feeds on the seeds of thistles, builds a wonderfully wrought nest in the fork of some flexible branch. The outside is made of moss and the silky down of tliistle-seeds and dande* I I lions, while the inside, artisti cally rounded, is lined with a thick cushion of horse-hair, wool, and feathers. "The chaffinch builds its nest in nearly the same way, but, more mistrustful than the goldfinch, it covers the outside of its abode with a layer of gray lichen which, merging with the lichen growing naturally on the American Goldfinch branch, serves to baffle the scrutiny of the bird-nest hunter. "The window-swallow makes its nest in the corne...