104 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



Several of the pendent nests present a highly 

 singular appearance. The penduline tit, a bird 

 inhabiting the south of Europe, forms a -beautiful 

 structure of this kind. In shape it resembles a 

 flask; but it has a pretty entrance at the side; and 

 its structure is highly ingenious. Out of the soft 

 down of the willow and poplar trees, this artificer, 

 with astonishing skill, weaves its beautiful nest. 

 It is suspended at the end of the branch of a 

 drooping willow, and generally closely overhangs 

 the water. The swallow dicoeum of Australia 

 forms a purse-like nest of almost equal beauty, 

 and of the snowiest white, out of the cottony sub- 

 stance of the seeds of plants. The appearance of 

 the bird seated in this pretty nest, and peeping 

 forth out of the opening at the side, is beautifully 

 represented in Mr. Gould's splendid work. 



If the reader will take the trouble to examine 

 one of the cases in the Zoological Gallery at the 

 British Museum, he will there discover some of 

 the most extraordinary specimens of bird-archi- 

 tecture in the annals of ornithology. One of these 

 might be called the retort-nest. The shape of 

 this chemical implement is doubtless familiar to 

 every one: it consists of a pear-shaped enlarge- 



