82 BIRDS OF THE PLAINS 



leaves, cocoons, bits of paper, and any kind of rubbish, 

 held together by means of cobweb and some glutinous 

 substance. There is an entrance at the side, over 

 which is a little porch that serves to keep out rain and 

 sun, but this porch is seen in every nest, even when the 

 bird builds, as it very frequently does, in a verandah. 

 A sunbird recently made its nest in the verandah of a 

 friend of mine ; the latter came to me and expressed his 

 contempt for the intellect of the little architect, since she 

 had been fool enough to construct a porch, although the 

 nest was built under cover. He forgot that the building 

 of nests is largely an instinctive act, that each bird 

 builds on a fixed plan, learned by it in " the school of 

 the woods." 



The nest is cosily lined with cotton down. No 

 attempt is made to conceal it ; nevertheless it frequently 

 escapes the notice of human beings, because it does not 

 look like a nest ; one is apt to mistake it for a mass of 

 dried grass and rubbish that has become caught in a 

 branch. A sunbird in my compound completely covered 

 her nest with the paper shavings that had once formed 

 the packing for a tin of biscuits. The khansamah, 

 when opening the tin, had, after the manner of his kind, 

 pitched the shavings out of the window of the cook- 

 house. 



It is doubtful whether predacious creatures mistake 

 the sunbird's nest for a mass of rubbish ; but it is so 

 well placed that they cannot get at it. It is invariably 

 situated sufficiently far above the ground to be out of 

 reach of a four-legged animal ; it hangs from an out- 

 standing branch so that no crow or kite can get a 



