The ground is carpeted with wild flowers, and we may gather the
beautiful anemones, violets, and buttercups. The trees are putting on
their dresses of green. The air rings with the joyful music of birds.
Now we know that the song of the robin was true.
BIRDS' HOMES.
Nearly every bird has a trade. Some are carpenters, others are masons,
weavers, tailors, basket-makers, etc. It is only when building their
homes that birds work at their trades.
Then you may see the woodpecker hammering with his chisel-like bill,
making a home in some dead tree. You can hear his strokes a long way
through the woods. The chips fly from beneath his strong blows.
The robin, the phoebe, and the barn and eave swallows are masons. The
robin moulds an inner layer of mud in his round nest and covers it with
fine grasses. The phoebe uses a mixture of mud and moss in plastering
his large nest on some beam or rafter.
The barn swallow also uses a beam. His nest is nearly all mud, but is
lined with soft feathers. The eave swallows are the most expert masons
of all. They build rows of mud tenements beneath the eaves of the barn.
Each little apartment is rounded over and has a round hole for a door.
The chimney swift or swallow uses wood and glue in making the pretty
little bracket-like basket he fastens to the chimney wall.
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