78 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
bush, but I have once seen it nearly twenty feet from 
the ground. 
The materials of the nest consist of moss, hair, 
wool, feathers, and the silk of spiders and caterpillars, 
all being interwoven in the most marvellous manner, 
and clothed, as above remarked, with a kind of outer 
garment of lichens and bark, always of a colour 
suitable to the surroundings. The nest is a very 
large one in comparison with the size of the builder, 
and is shaped somewhat like a very rounded egg, a 
small opening being left in one side for purposes of 
ingress and egress, and occasionally another, rather 
higher, for those of ventilation. The female bird is 
always the builder, her mate seeming to be devoid of 
the necessary skill for such an undertaking. 
The eggs are more numerous than those of any 
other member of the family, and average nine or ten 
in number, while it is not unusual for twelve, or even 
fifteen, to be found in a single nest. I have once 
known eighteen eggs to be taken from a bottle-tit’s 
nest, but these were removed, two or three together, 
at intervals, and under such circumstances the bottle- 
tit, like many other birds, will replace those of which 
she has been robbed. 
It may well be supposed that, even in so capacious 
anest as that provided for them, this large family 
must after a time become sadly incommoded by 
want of room. And, as a matter of fact, such 1s 
very frequently the case, the young birds being so 
tightly packed that their every movement is notice- 
able through the walls of their abode. It would 
