76 BIRD ARCHITECTS 



We found them fairly common in the Albany kloofs 

 during January, 1907, and discovered several nests, 

 which were like smaller editions of the Mouse-colored* 

 Sunbird's nest, but they were invariably hung from a 

 low branch near to a water-rill. The eggs number two, 

 and are of a whitish colour thickly marked with greyish- 

 brown. 



PENDULINE TITS. 



We next come to a family of birds, the Tits (Paridce), 

 which contains, in the genus JEgithalus, two species of 

 tiny birds which may lay claim to being two of the 

 neatest little architects of the avian world. 



They will probably be easily distinguished from one 

 another from the following extract of a diagnosis of Dr. 

 Sharpe's in the Ibis for 1904 : 



A. Breast darker and dull ochreous; upper surface 



dark ashy, dark olivaceus on the rump and 



upper tail-coverts JE. minutus. 



B. Breast light sulphur-yellow, slightly darker in old 



birds, light grey on head verging into light olive- 

 greenish, becoming more sulphur-yellow on the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts M. smithii. 



The first is confined to the Cape Colony south of the 

 Orange River, the second being the form inhabiting the 

 Transvaal, Mashonaland and Damaraland. 



These dainty little birds, called Kappoc-vogel (meaning 

 cotton-wool bird) by the Boers, build a neatly woven nest 

 of the downy seed of plants (in sheep districts wool is 

 utilised), felted together into distinct layers, until a strong, 

 cloth-like structure of a domed shape, with an opening 

 at the side, is completed. This is quite rainproof and 

 exceedingly warm and cosy. Below the actual opening 

 there is generally a blind opening in the shape of a 

 shallow pouch, which the natives assert is used by the 



