The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-10-11

seems only to need fire place to make
il real house. II is entered through
the long neck at the lower end. The
bed for the eggs rests in the bulb, or
expansion Mt the middle of the nest,
for the male has a perch divided OFF
from the female by little partition,
whore he may sit and sing to her in
rainy weather, or when the sun shines
very hot, and where he may rest ut
night. The walls are a firm lattice
work of grass, neatly woven together,
which permits the air to pass through,
but does not allow the birds to be seen.
The whole nest is from fourteen to
eighteen inches long, and six inches
wide at the thickest part. 1t is hung
low over the water-why, we shall
presently see-and its only entrance is
through the hanging neck
"WhySo birds build hanging nests ?"
Those birds that do make hanging
nests, undoubtedly do it because they
think them the safest. Birds eggs are
delicacies on the bill of fare of several
animals, and are eagerly sought by
them. Snakes, for instance, live almost
entirely on them, during the month of
June; squirrels eat them, raccoons
also, and oppossums, cats, rats and
mice. But none of these animals could
creep out to the plant, wavy ends of
the willow branches or elm twigs, and
cling there long enough to get at the
contents of Baltimore orioles nest.
"In the country where the baya spar
,I~.2.
sums, and all the rest of the egg-eaters;
and in addition there are troops of
monkeys, which are more to be feared
than all the rest together. Monkeys
are wonderfully expert climbers, from
whom the eggs, i'll an ordinary open
top pouch nest, like the orioles, would
not be secure; for if they can get any
where near, they will reach their long,
slender fingers down inside the nest.
The baya sparrow discovered this, and
learned to build a nest inclosed on all
sides, and to enter it from underneath
by neck too long for a monkey to
conveniently reach up through. Be
side this, she took the precaution to
hang it out on the very tips of light
branches upon which she thought no
robber would dare trust himself But
she found that the monkey knew a
trick worth two o that They would
go to higher limb which was strong,
and one would let himself down from
it, grasping it firmly with his hands;
then another monkey would crawl
down and hold on to the heels of the
first one, another would go below him,
and SO on until several were hanging
to each other, and the lowest one could
reach the sparrow's treasures. He
would eat them all himself, and then
one by one they would climb up over
each other; and last of all the tired
first one, who had been holding up the
weight of all the rest, would get up,
too, and all would go noisily off in
search of fresh plumber, which, sup
pose, would be given to different one,
the rest making ladder for him as
before.
Now the cunning baya sparrow saw
a way to avoid even this dangerous
trickery She knew that there was
nothing monkey hated so terribly as
TO get his sleek coat wet. He would
rather go hungry. SO she hung her
nest over the water close to the sur
face, and the agile thieves do not dare
make chain long enough to enable
the last one to reach up into her nest
from below, as he must do, for fear
that the springy branches might bend
so far as to souse them into the water.
"The sparrow has fairly outwitted
the monkey |-ETWeSt hlgerSoU, in
81. Nicholas.