80 PASSERES. TODDLE. 



be in error ; but he was confident of the fact, how- 

 ever anomalous, as he had seen the bird actually in 

 the nest. In a few days he sent me the twig with 

 the nest upon it. It was certainly one to which 

 I could assign no probable ownership, but that 

 he had mentioned. It was built on a small shrubby 

 tree, in the fork formed by one of the principal 

 branches, and a twig that it sent forth, being rather 

 wider" than a right angle. As the main branch 

 is not thicker than one's little finger, and the nest 

 is stretched from the one to the other, the out- 

 line of the rim forms a long oval about 1J inch 

 by } ; and j inch deep. It is a thin, very frail 

 structure, formed of spiders' webs stretched along, 

 in which are profusely inlaid the shining, brown 

 perules of some leaf-buds; with the addition of a 

 little silk-cotton, this is the whole : it looks un- 

 finished. To set against the improbability of this 

 being the nest of a Tody, there are these two 

 considerations : First, the direct evidence of an 

 intelligent and observant man, who, I feel sure, 

 would not willingly deceive me, and to whom the 

 Tody was too familiar for him to mistake its iden- 

 tity. Secondly, the nest is too small for any other 

 known Jamaican bird, except the Humming-birds ; 

 and I have specimens of the nests of all our known 

 species, not one of which it resembles at all. I 

 have no doubt that the report is correct, and that it 

 is an aberration of habit. 



