BULBULS' NESTS II 141 



blance of one. The bulbuls could not have been 

 working at that nest for more than half an hour 

 when I discovered it. On my return thirty minutes 

 later to look at it I found that the amount of material 

 collected had doubled, but the nest was still without 

 any definite form ; it was a mere conglomeration 

 of rubbish. The two leaves already mentioned had 

 dropped down nearly a couple of inches below the 

 other material. The additional material consisted 

 of more Duranta twigs with berries, straws, dried 

 grasses, cobweb, and a piece of what looked like 

 tissue paper. Half an hour later the rapidly increasing 

 collection included a long piece of worsted, but this 

 was not wound round any of the branches. In most 

 bulbuls' nests that I have seen a certain amount of 

 cotton or such-like material is used to support, the 

 cup-like nest by being bound to one of the neighbouring 

 branches, although cobweb is the chief means of 

 attaching the nest to its surroundings. In this par- 

 ticular instance, however, the worsted was not so 

 utilised ; possibly the pliable, upright branches of 

 the cypress did not lend themselves to this kind of 

 attachment. At this time (9 a.m.) the collected 

 materials had nothing of the shape of a nest, but some 

 of the tiny twigs were entwined in the cypress branches. 

 At midday, four hours after I had first seen the 

 nest, I was astonished to find that it had assumed 

 a saucer-like form. I was not a witness of the pro- 

 cess whereby the original shapeless mass was made 

 to take this shape, but my observations on other 

 nests have convinced me that the nest is shaped 



