NESTS AND NEST-BUILDING IN BIRDS 187 



and correlated activities of the builders; namely: (i, b, i) the 

 Statant '" or standing type, which is supported frcm below, and 

 built from its base or foundations, upward, and (i, b, 2) the 

 Pendent '• or hanging type, suspended from above, or from the 

 sides, and necessarily built downward or outward from its 

 supporting points. 



Increment nests (figs. 1-5) which are wholly, or partly the 

 work of the builders, and which stand alone, whatever the 

 nature of the site, are characteristic of the great passerine order. 



Figure 6 — Cluster of pendent usnea lichen on dead twig of pine, adapted for nest 

 by parula "warbler, Compsothlypis americana. (See table 2, — 3, I, b, 2, b^) 



as well as of most existing birds ; in its simplest state it repre- 

 sents the most primitive form of nest, excepting only the simplest 

 natural cavities, or those made only by scratching or stirring 

 up the ground. 



The use of this heraldic term is not above criticism, but it will serve until a 



16 



better is suggested 



17 ii — ■ 



Pendent " is used in the strictly literal sense of hanging, or suspended, but 

 not as synonymous with pendulou^^ or peiidiiline, by which we mean swinging freely, 

 and apply only to elastic suspended nests as of the oriole or weaver finches. " Pen- 

 sile " is commonly used as the equivalent of " pendulous," though I have some- 

 times applied it to the stiffer pendent nests of vireos and kinglets. 



