251 Journal of Travel and Natural History 



had dropped while on horseback the previous evening. Mr E. 

 Newton found four nests of the Scopus, close together in one 

 clump of trees in Madagascar. " Three of them were on the same 

 tree ; the fourth on another, which had been partly blown down, 

 and not more than 6 feet from the ground. It was with some 

 difficulty," he adds, " that I climbed over the nest, and so solidly 

 was it built, that it bore my weight. There were two entrances to 

 the nest (the others had only one each), and notwithstanding the 

 great size of the nest, the chamber within hardly appeared large 

 enough to contain its future tenants." Upon another occasion he 

 found a brood of the Madagascar kestrel (Tinnunculus gracilis) 

 within the large nest of Scopus umbretta.* 



There are several remarkable nest-builders among the birds of 

 South Africa, and amongst the nests the enormous compound and 

 thatched fabric of the " social grosbeak" of authors (Philetairus 

 socius) is about the most celebrated. The nests of Plocepasser 

 mahali are "composed of the stalks of grasses, the thickest ex- 

 tremities being placed so as to protrude externally, and offer a 

 defence against snakes," &c., as remarked by the late Sir Andrew 

 Smith. Upon which Mr Layard writes : — 



" Dr Smith's statement, that the protruding sticks of the nest are meant as a 

 defence against snakes, appears to me to be as well founded as the idea that 

 other members of this family construct their bottle-shaped nests at the extremity 

 of branches, so as to be out of the way of monkeys and snakes. Why should 

 these birds, beyond all others, be endowed with such prescient wisdom ? Why 

 should they depart from their custom sometimes, and build their nests on reeds? 

 Or why take these precautions in places where neither snakes nor monkeys 

 exist?" 



Among the more active and well-informed correspondents of 

 our author, Mrs Barber holds a conspicuous place, and this lady 

 writes from " The Highlands," near Graham's Town : — 



'* I send herewith the nest of a kind of finch (Hyphantornis capitalis). They 

 are common, and most likely you know both the bird and its nest, though I do 

 not suppose that you know the material that the nest is made of ; for in our 

 youthful bird-nesting days it puzzled us amazingly, until at length we found out 

 the secret, which was, that the nest of this bird is made of the fibres of the 

 leaves of a species of Sanseviera, a plant belonging to the natural order 

 Asphodeleoe ; but as our Flora has not yet been published up to that order, I 

 cannot give you its specific name with any degi^ee of certainty. It is not the 

 tall aloe-like one that grows in our forests ; but the dwarf, thick-leaved, stcmless 

 Sanseviera, with the red edges to its leaves. The whole leaf is full of strong 



*Ibis, vol. IV., p. 267 (July, 1862), and vol. v., p. 170 (April, 1S63). 



