Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1886 — Singular Nesting-Places. [ARTICLE]

Singular Nesting-Places.

As a rule, birds select sites for their nests with an eye mainly to security from enemies. And as these ehemies include flying, crawling, and walking creatures, the nests are very likely to be well hidden. Occasionally, however, the feathered builder treats us to a surprise by fixing upon the most singularly unexpected spot; as, for example, when a robin sets its heart on having the armhole of a farmer’s coat for its nest. The farmer had taken[off his coat one warm spring morning, and thrown it across the crotch of a low cedar tree. When noontime came an industrious pair of robins had collected in the exposed armhole the foundation of their nest. The coat was an old one, and the farmer tender-hearted, so the birds Avere not disturbed. In New York the iron pillars which support the elevated road have been pre-empted by the English sparrows, and there,yin the midst of an almost constant din, thousands of little sparrows have been hatched. In a Kentucky town stands a, statue of George Washington, who is represented holding his hat in his hand. A pair of woodpeckers discovered the hat one day, and forthwith set about making a nest in its crown. For several seasons the bronze hat, which was only a useless luxury to Washington, made a snug home for the birds. A pair of onr native sparrows, with still more enterprise, marched up to the very cannon’s mouth at Fort Willett, and built their little nest inside of it. The gun was loaded, and tho bold intruders might have fared badly had not their presence been discovered in time to prevent the discharge of the gun.

Another pair of native sparrows are said to have built their nest on the end of the walking beam of a Hudson River steamboat. The boat was fast at the wharf at the time, and the eggs were laid in the nest before she was ready to go. The old birds were in a pitiful flutter when the great beam began to move up and down, and for a time they seemed to question the advisability of trying to maintain a home in such an unsteady spot. Finally, however, they became reconciled, and went with the boat to New York and back on several trips before the little ones were hatched. Perhaps no odder place was ever se : lected than that hit upon by a pair bl wrens in England. A crow hdd been caught, and as is the custom in England, and in parts of this country, too, the black thief was nailed to a tree, as a sort of warning to his fellows. The body, of course, was soon devoured and carried away by ants,' leaving only the feather-clad skeleton on 0 tree. For some reason a pair of tiny wrens took a fancy to the dead crow, and began to utilize it. They brought the wings together and ingeniously fastened them. Then they built their nest between the wings, and made an entrance to it at the place where the crow’s breast had been. They may be said to have nestled in the bosom of the crow. Lord Suffolk, upon whose grounds this occurred, was so interested in this novel home that when the little birds were hatched he had the crow taken down, properly preserved, put in a glass case, and hung up in his Charlton Park picture gallery. ■ — ; — ■ The water ousel may, however, be credited with having selected the most picturesque spot yet recorded. The ousel is a member of the sweet-voiced thrush family, but is what may be called an amphibious bird, since it divides irfcfe time very impartially between the land and the water. It is a very nimble land bird, and a good flyer, too, while in the water it is as much at home almost as a fish. A pair of ousels once decided upon a spot just behind a waterfall. The only way to get at the ledge of rock was bv flying through the/waterftfll, and this they did, going back and forth with building materials like a couple of schoolboys on a frolic. The little birds were actually reared behind the transparent, ever-moving veil of water. — Golden Days.