on the Silver-eared Mesia.



3S7



ships, had laid only one egg, but who had pecked it? or were

the “ pecks” really claw-marks from nervous fear on the part of

the sitting-bird when cats invaded the aviary at night, and

stationed themselves, as I found them doing more than once,

directly over the nest ? It was suggestive that, although assist¬

ing heartily in its construction, the male afterwards seemed to

take but little interest in it.


This nest I pulled down. There were other nests about,

the tree was pretty thick and I was unaware of any peculiarity in

its construction, it was rather a stretch and I wanted to retire as

quickly as possible, and I irreparably damaged its most interest¬

ing feature. Several dead Virginia creeper ends had one end

laid along and fastened to the outside of the nest, and the other

bound to an upright shoot of the tree. This was uniform all

round the nest, which was thus firmly tied with hawsers to

various small boughs. In nests 1, 2, 3 and 5, the first materials

carried were invariably these ends of the creeper ; nest No. 3 is

also figured, but about two inches below it, in a fork, there was a

large mass of material, presumably a proposed foundation, but

which was never joined to the nest proper suspended above it.


But to return to No. 2. I had to use considerable force to

pull it from its position, thus breaking many of the “ tentacles”

and displacing the others ; and it was further damaged before it

reached the hands of Mr. Seth-Smith, who most kindly photo¬

graphed the egg and two of the nests for us. With the exception

of the creeper ends, and a few leaves at the bottom, it was con¬

structed mostly of dead grasses of various kinds, with a lump or

two of the “hair” supplied in the nest-bags of the shop, the

lining of course being of much finer materials—no feathers. It

was solidly built, with much outside material, the following

being about the dimensions in inches of the nest proper, which

seemed to be a counterpart of the first nest:—Diameter varying

but about 5J, of the cup 2J; height ; depth of cup just over 2

inches ; thickness of wall at top inch. The egg is pinky-

white, with an irregular zone of red-brown blotches inclined to

yellow at the larger end, the latter being washed with yellow-

brown.


On July 14, the two birds were very busy building in a



