98 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



its base, was estimated as nearly equal to its 

 height ; and the apex, which terminated in a slight 

 concavity, measured about two feet six inches, or 

 three feet, in diameter. The materials of which 

 the great mass was composed were sticks and 

 weeds, fragments of rock, and the bones of fish. 

 But in one, strange to relate, was found the thorax 

 of a man, a silver watch made by George Prior, 

 a London watchmaker of the last century, cele- 

 brated throughout the East ; and in the nest, or 

 basin at the apex of the cone, were some pieces of 

 woollen cloth, and an old shoe. That these nests 

 had been but recently constructed was sufficiently 

 evident from the shoe and watch of the ship- 

 wrecked pilgrim, whose tattered clothes and 

 whitened bones were found at no great distance. 

 From the accounts of the Arabs, it was presumed 

 that these nests had been occupied by remarkably 

 large birds of the stork tribe, which had deserted 

 the coast previous to the traveller's visit. 



Whether these nests, constructed so differently, 

 and in such remote parts of the world, are to be 

 considered the work of the same species of bird, is 

 more than questionable. In all probability the 

 species are distinct. It may also be doubted 



