KIDIFTCATIOtf. 69 



mmg-birds is as varied as are the species them- 

 selves in form and local habit. In every instance, 

 however, the nest is peculiar and beautiful, and 

 constructed of the most delicate and filmy mate- 

 rials. Generally speaking, it is thickly lined 

 with a sort of wadding or felt, consisting of a 

 cottony substance, the down or pubescence of 

 different flowers, plants, or trees, varying in 

 colour from white and straw-yellow to deep 

 chestnut-brown. Some nests, however, which we 

 have examined, have only a slight lining, and are 

 loose in general texture. Of these nests some 

 are cup-shaped, others conical, others with sin- 

 gular appendages, acting evidently as balancers, 

 in order to steady a pendent cradle. Externally 

 the nest is coated with particles of lichen com- 

 mingled with vegetable filaments, moss, the 

 webs of spiders, or threads apparently derived 

 from the cocoons of insect pupae. In position 

 these nests are as different as imagination can 

 conceive ; some are attached to the fork of a 

 branch ; others are bound to a waving twig en- 

 shrouded by foliage ; others are pendent, attached 

 to the extremity of the leaves of palms, flags, 

 and other plants overhanging water; others, 

 again, build on rocks, hanging their nests by 

 filaments to the sides of bold precipices. Several 

 species hang their nests to the extremity of 

 slender pendent tendrils; and from some of 

 these nests a projection bulges out, containing a 

 stone, or two or more stones, acting as a coun- 



