86 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 



ascertained that this sort of niche is not contrived 

 for any such purpose. The male, indeed, sits on the 

 eggs as well as the female, and when either of them 

 is thus occupied, the other never remains as a sen- 

 tinel at the nest. I am quite confident of this, from 

 having found at least a hundred of these nests, and 

 having watched and observed the birds for whole 

 mornings together. This little recess appears to be 

 nothing more that a perch, by means of which the 

 pine-pine may pass more easily into its nest, which, 

 without such a contrivance, it might find some dif- 

 ficulty of accomplishing, as it could not move through 

 so small an opening on the wing ; and as the outside 

 of the nest is slightly formed, it would injure it were 

 the bird constantly to rest upon it, while this little 

 space is as strongly built as the interior of the nest. 

 To give it the required solidity, the bird has no other 

 means than beating with its wings, and turning its 

 body in different directions, as I have elsewhere 

 related of the capocier. In consequence of this 

 method of working, the work must necessarily be 

 rounded and have the appearance of a very small 

 nest; a circumstance which has led to the belief 

 that it was made solely for the accommodation of 

 the male. This, however, is so*far from being the 

 fact, that when a branch is so situated as to render 

 the entrance into the nest easy, the little cell is not 

 found ; and, besides, I found several of these nests 

 with two or three perches, and others in which the 

 perch had little of the form of a small nest. 



" In general, these perch-cells are so narrow that 

 the bird, small as it is, could not well rest upon 

 them ; and it would be much more difficult for the 

 bird to which Sonnerat attributes this nest. Besides, 

 as I have already stated, I examined the proceedings 

 of these birds whenever an opportunity occurred, 

 and never once observed one placed in th eniche as 

 a watchbird ; but I have seen the male and female, 

 on arriving at the nest, perch themselves on the 



