312 PARID.E ^IGITHALUS 



of the domed nest consist of a tough cloth-like material impervious 

 to rain. The nest is usually about four feet off the ground and is 

 attached by its sides to several nearly parallel twigs. It varies in 

 size and shape but is generally about seven inches high by four 

 inches wide and more or less oval in form. The entrance is on 

 one side near the top of the nest, through a short sleeve-like tube 

 just wide enough to admit the bird. Immediately below it is a 

 larger pocket or blind opening, in which, according to the Hottentots 

 and Kaffirs, the male roosts. I once had an opportunity of watching 

 a pair of Cotton Birds during the construction of their nest and 

 for some time subsequently. As soon as the nest was completed 

 the female laid an egg and added one every morning until seven 

 were deposited. On leaving the nest after laying, and sometimes 

 when inside, she generally carefully closed the entrance by pinching 

 the upper and lower lips of the entrance-tube together with her 

 bill until no visible aperture was apparent ; on one occasion, before 

 leaving the nest for the day, she stitched the upper lip to the lower, 

 so effectively, that on her return it was some time before she herself 

 could effect an entrance ; but on other occasions no attempt was 

 made to close the opening during the day. It appeared to me at 

 the time that the temperature of the interior of the nest was pro- 

 bably regulated by opening or closing the entrance tube, at the 

 same time the nest with the entrance closed would be comparatively 

 secure against the assaults of egg- eating snakes and lizards, reptiles 

 which are common enough in most of the localities frequented by 

 the "Cappoc Vogel." 



From six to twelve eggs are laid by the Cotton Bird, in Sep- 

 tember and October in Cape Colony. 



They are very small, pure white in colour and usually elongated 

 in shape. They average 0-56 x 0-38. 



Le Vaillant figures the nest of this Tit correctly in plate 131 of 

 " Les Oiseaux d'Afrique " but erroneously ascribes it to " Le Pine 

 Pine," Cisticola textrix, a bird that builds a very different style of 

 nest. A nest mentioned by Andersson in the " Birds of Damara 

 Land," p. 89, as that of this Tit, must have been that of some other 

 species, containing, as suggested by Mr. Gurney, the egg of a 



182. ^githalus caroli. Andersson's Penduline Tit. 



^Egithalus minutus (nee Shaw), Shut^e, Cat. Afr. B. p. 35 (1871). 

 ^Egithalus caroli, Sliarpe, Ibis, 1871, p. 415 ; Gadoiv, Cat. B. M. viii, 

 p. 71, pi. i, fig. i, (1883) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 10 (1896). 



A 9 /^ 



