INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS.
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 I 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 running water; often it is on a branch that overhangs a stream. Sometimes it will be on a slender 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 on old trees. The whole fabric swaying in the breeze is the work of the two little birds with slate-blue 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 questions 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 of the rejection of unsuitable stuff by the particular wife of a non-discriminating spouse and the consequent squabble.
Alack! did not the labour 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!
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