Page:Bird-lore Vol 04.djvu/142

 The Nesting of the Yellow-throated Vireo 121

The discovery of the nest—building was made, as is so often the case, by seeing the bird gathering mnerial. \Ve were passing near the stable, when underneath its rather deep eaves a small bird was seen to be ﬂut» tering, and we thought she was caught in a strong spider's web, as before now I have found our Hummingbird; but instead of this the bird was gathering web for her uses, and soon ﬂew away to the from of the house, where we lost sight of her; but on coming up cautiously we had the great joy of seeing her fastening the ﬁrst sticky threads of her new home to some outstretched twigs of a small low-growing elm branch close by our window. Then my notebook came into requisi- tion. and was so faithfully used until the ﬂedglings left the nest that a fairly accurate account may be given of what followed.

1. The birds began their budding on Sunday morning, June 2. By the following Saturday, June 8, the nest was completed, so that they took about one round week of not hurried, but of quite incessant work to complete their homermaking.

2. They both worked, she of the somewhat modiﬁed yellow and green and he with the deeper-colored throat and more vivid livery It was pretty to see and hear them about their work. There seemed to be such a considerate and even courtly etiquette about it all. One would come with a bit of material and ﬁnd the other Still engaged upon the nest. Then he or she would perch close by, often with a little sub- dued chirp. such as birds in their love-making know how to give, and then. when the worker had ﬁnished his bit, with another answering twitter he or she would quit the ﬁeld, as if saying: " Now the way is open for you.” At times there would be a halt in their comings and goings. ﬁlled in with the deep contralto tones of their answering notes. as they fed among the branches or rested during the midday.

3. The material for the nest was almost all of spider-web. This was a matter of surprise to me. The Red-eye uses such generous bits of thin bark and pieces of paper even. And there were occasional thread—like shreds of some coarser ﬁber in the Yellow~throats' building, but by far the larger part was of the twisted ﬁlms of the spider.

4. The manner in which the birds fastened this, part to part. and then stretched the nest into shape, was a most interesting process. 1 have often wondered, with the longer nest of the Baltimore Oriole, how she manages toward the bottom or lower part of her nest—whether she could reach all the way down from the outside and curve the grow? ing pendant into form? I have had hintings. too. in her case. of how largely the work is done from the inside; but with these Vireos and their building right before me it was as if I had been taken into the nest? architects" studio and shown plans and speciﬁcations and then allowed to watch the construction itself.