Page:Bird-lore Vol 08.djvu/71

 Some Bird-Notes from the Magdalens 47 ner of the Franklin's Gulls in the West. The owners might possibly have been Forster's Terns, but this is too much out of their range to render it likely, and it is more probable that a pair of the common species, seeing a pile of dead reeds, thought they might as well hollow out a nest among them. Seldom have I seen more beautiful nests than some of those built by the northern song-birds, made soft, snug and warm to counteract the cold wind and fog of the northern June. One of the Fox Sparrow was a 'dandy.' The female flushed right before me from a low spruce bush, about waist - high, in a scrubby tract, and there was the large, compact nest, constructed first as an outer cup of green moss, then an inner nest of grass, and inside that one of black and white horse-hairs. In it were four heavily browned eggs, as large as those of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Another gem of bird -architecture was built by Blackpoll Warblers, which are verv abundant. It was in an exactlv similar situation to that of NEST OF BLACK-POLL WARBLER the Fox Sparrow, and I found it by thrashing through the scrub with a long switch and thus starting the owner off from her nest. It was, of course, smaller and daintier, yet it was built after the same plan and of about the same materials as the other, save that for the inside lining, in addition to the horse-hair, was a beautiful and abundant assortment of