254 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS 



and feathers, placing them in open sites amongst 

 herbage and at the foot of dense bushes. 



Passing on to the Wrens (Troglodytidae) we 

 find a domed nest as the most typical, made of 

 moss, dry fronds and leaves, bents, rootlets, and 

 twigs, lined with hair and feathers, and placed in 

 bushes, under banks, amongst trailing or creep- 

 ing plants, in crevices of rocks, and so forth ; but 

 in some few genera the style of nest is open ; 

 and in another we have a purse-like structure 

 entered by a long passage of woven materials. 

 Then again the Swallows (Hirundinidae) present 

 us with an exceptional amount of diversity in the 

 plan of their nests. We find species like the 

 Sand Martin tunnelling into banks, and forming 

 a rude nest of dry grass and feathers ; others, 

 like the Swallow, building a saucer-shaped home 

 composed externally of mud and lined with 

 straws, grass, and feathers, placed in outhouses, 

 caves, &c. ; others, like the House Martin, globu- 

 lar, with an entrance near the top, and cemented 

 to rocks or masonry, or retort-shaped with a 

 long tube for entrance at the side, in similar 

 situations ; whilst some species utilise the nests 

 of other birds, and make their own abodes in that 

 of their host. The Finches (Fringillidae) are 

 remarkably uniform in their type of nest. This 



