Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/110

Rh the little architect to lay it on so very smoothly, with no other implement besides its narrow pointed bill. It would indeed puzzle any of our best workmen to work so uniformly smooth with such a tool; but from the frame being nicely prepared, and by using only small pellets at a time, which are spread out with the upper part of the bill, the work is rendered somewhat easier.

"This wall being finished, the birds employ for the inner coating little short slips of rotten wood, chiefly that of the willow; and these are firmly glued on with the same salivary cement, while they are bruised flat at the same time, so as to correspond with the smoothness of the surface over which they are laid. This final coating, however, is seldom extended so high as the first, and neither of them is carried quite to the brim of the nest; the birds thinking it enough to bring their masonry near to the twisted band of grass, which forms the mouth. The whole wall, when finished, is not much thicker than pasteboard, and though hard, tough, and water-tight, is more warm and comfortable than at first view might appear; and admirably calculated for protecting the eggs or young from the bleak winds which prevail in the early part of the spring, when the Song-Thrush breeds."

The nest of this bird is usually built in a thick bush, often an evergreen, as a holly, or in the midst of a clustering ivy; and these are selected, doubtless, because at the early season at which the Thrush builds, the deciduous trees and hedges have not yet put out their foliage, and consequently do not afford the needful concealment.