Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/203

little couple cling to the spot selected for their house and will not leave it; neither will they hatch the obnoxious eggs, which they are apparently unable to throw out; but the difficulty is soon surmounted, and so are the gratuitous eggs, for the yellowbirds proceed at once to cover up the cow blackbird's eggs, constructing a new nest on top of the old one, building a second story to their house.

Last summer Mr. Lang Gibson brought me one of these two-story nests which he found at Flushing, L. I.; the lower nest contained two cow blackbird's eggs, and the upper one three eggs of the summer yellowbird. Gibson watched the construction of the nest. Visiting it again after it was finished, he discovered the egg of a cow blackbird. Next day two of these eggs occupied the nest. Some time afterward, to his surprise, he found the nest contained three eggs of the yellowbird and no signs of the existence of those deposited by the blackbird, but the nest had the appearance of being much taller than at first, and an examination disclosed it to be a two-story nest, the lower compartment containing two cow-birds' eggs, and the upper part three yellowbirds' eggs. Since writing the above, the same young collector presented me with another double nest. This time both nests were inhabited and contained eggs; the lower story is a meadow wren's nest with an entrance on one side, and the upper one is the nest of the red-winged or swamp blackbird. The eggs in both compartments were warm when discovered, which proves that they were fresh and that the old birds had not long been absent.

Nests made of woollen fibres must be dusted with fine tobacco, snuff, or camphor, to keep the moths out. Nests made of sticks, straws, etc., will not be attacked by insects, and need no preparation to preserve them.