found a branch far out of sight of snakes and hawks and cruel tabby
cats, high out of reach of naughty small boys with their sling-shots,
and now everything was ready for these small carpenters to begin their
building. No hammer and nails were needed, claw and bill were all the
tools they used, and yet what beautiful carpenter work was theirs!

Do you see how strongly the nest is tied on to those three slender
twigs, and how carefully and closely it is woven, so that you can
scarcely pull it apart? Those wiry black hairs holding all the rest
together were dropped from Prince Charming's tail (Prince Charming is
the pretty saddle-horse who crops his grass, under the willow-tree).
Those sleek brown hairs belonged to Dame Margery, the gentle mooly
cow, who lives with her little calf Pet in the stable with Prince
Charming; and there is a shining yellow spot on one side. Ah, you
roguish birds, you must have been outside the kitchen window when baby
Johnny's curls were cut! We could only spare two from his precious
head, and we hunted everywhere for this one to send to grandmamma!

Now just look at this door in the side of the nest, and tell me how a
bird could make such a perfect one; and yet I've heard you say, "It's
only a bird; he doesn't know anything." To be sure he cannot do as
many things as you, but after all you are not wise enough to do many
of the things that he does. What would one of my little boys do, I
wonder, if he were carried miles away from home and dropped in a place
he had never seen? Why, he would be too frightened to do anything but
cry; and yet there are many birds, who, when taken away a long
distance, will perch on top of the weather-vane, perhaps, make up
their little bits of minds which way to go, and then with a whir-r-r-r
fly off over house-tops and church-steeples, towns and cities, rivers
and meadows, until they reach the place from which they started.