The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-11
WINTER BIRD NESTING.

To be sure, winter is not usually
 looked upon as the season for bird-
 nesting, yet it is in many respects, the
 best season of the whole year for the
 pursuit. In the first place, it Is at this
 season that we have our greatest range
 of vision. The dense masses of foliage,
 which at other times of the year ob-
 struct our view, and shut out all but | the nearest objects, are absent and the
 trees and bushes present q gray net
 work of bare branches, in the meshes of
 which hundreds of birds nests appear
 to have been caught. As we walk
 through the woods. we see these bird 1 homes above us, and on either hand,
 and we marvel that. with ali our care- i ful searching last spring, we over- l looked so many. Along the forest paths
 we almost knock our heads against the | little hanging baskets of the vireos, but so cunningly were they hidden amongst the green leaves, and so still sat the
 modest green backed birds upon them,
 that we passed them by unheeded per-
 haps a dozen times.
 At this season we may also examine
 without difficulty the structure of the
 nests; we can plainly see the flimsy
 platforms of sticks and twigs thrown
 together by the herons and cuckoos; the
 half finished looking horse-hair contri- vances of the chipping sparrows, the
 loosely-made homes of the thrashers and catbirds and the neatly turned cups of the redstarts and yellow war
 blers. In the elm trees along the road sides we see the gray woven hammocks of the Baltimore orioles, swimming In the wind, and in the orchards we find the nests of cedar wax wings gold inches, kingbirds and many others.
 Although most of the birds which built them are now hundreds, perhaps thousands, of miles to the south of us, roaming the forests of the Gulf states or the jungles of South Africa, the nests themselves are not all uninhabited as we shall quickly find as soon as we be- gin to examine them. We may see an old crows nest in the top of some tall oak tree, and on climbing up to it we may find it occupied by a pair of gray squirrels, which have made it their home for the winter. The squirrels will probably have enlarged it considerably, by adding a quantity of dead leaves, and it will have been roofed over until | it is almost glohular in shape, Some times these squirrels will repair and add | to an old birds nest until the original | structure cannot be seen until part of | the new material is torn away. There | is usually a neat round hole left in the | side of the nest near the trunk, and as 8 rule the inmates are out and away up. When the weather is very cold, however they sleep very sound, and 1t | is then quite possible to reach the nest | before they are aware of 1t. But it will | not pay to try to catch one with bare hands, for a gray squirrels teeth will go right through 9 finger, bone and all. 1 tried it once and I had buckskin gloves on, though no one would have it had they seen my hands 
 Flying squirrels, too, often use old oirds' nests for their winter quarters, irst making them as soft and warm as possible by the addition of fine grass, cedar bark, and other fibrous materials. Occasionally flying squirrels take pos session of a nest built in the branches if tree, but more often they select a ecayed stump which has been hollowed ut by a Woodpecker
 The nests which we find lower down, II bushes and tangles of briers. are uite as apt to have tenants as the lof- fer ones are. Only few days ago | 1hen l was out bird-nestingy spied an i'd song -sparrow's nest in a tangle of :, reenbrier. On general principles I , nook the steps a little, and out popped ,,