The Nest of the Bottle Bird. 157 



(Parus caudatus), or " bottle bird/' as some country 

 people call it, from the shape and style of its nest. One 

 I have just made note of, a nest of this year, during 

 March, with all the eggs in it, which is an unquestionable 

 curiosity, besides a beautiful specimen of bird architec- 

 ture. Of a nearly regular ovoid shape, its longer axis is 

 a little over six inches, the measurement crossways being 

 four and a half. It is placed vertically on a wild rose-bush, 

 in a hedgerow, the smaller end upwards, in which is the 

 entrance hole, that barely admits the insertion of my fore- 

 finger. The bird itself passing in or out must needs have 

 a squeeze for it, small though the creature be. The inside 

 furniture is a thick lining of feathers, in which I identify 

 those of the jay, with other wild species; while the main 

 wall of the nest is composed of green moss and wool, 

 firmly woven, or rather felted together, and supported in 

 the rose-bush by several branches worked in with the 

 material. The outside layer or surface is not the least 

 curious thing connected with it : this an encrusting of 

 small lichen scales, set all over it so thickly as almost to 

 conceal the greenery of the moss, and give it a sheen of 

 silver grey. And, as if to heighten the effect, here and 

 there are larger and lighter coloured blotches of a thin 

 substance, I at first took for bits of tissue paper, but 

 which, on examination, proved to be the gossamer enve- 

 lopes of some species of insect in the pupal state. Likely 

 enough the tits had eaten the pupce themselves out of 

 their silken coats, before they were converted into nest 

 ornamentation. 



It has long been matter of speculative surprise that a 

 bird with such lengthy development of tail should build 

 a nest seemingly so ill-suited and inconvenient for its 

 uses. The inside cavity, however, is ample, ovoid in form 



