A LITTLE NURSERY AND ITS 

 OCCUPANTS 



A PAIR of white-browed fantail flycatchers 

 (Rhipidura albifrontatd) were considerate 

 enough to build a nest within a hundred 

 yards of the house in which I spent a 

 month's leave at Coonoor. The nest in question was 

 placed on a forked branch, the lowest in the tree, and 

 at a height of about ten feet from the ground. I use 

 the past tense advisedly, for the nest is no longer in the 

 tree. 



After it had been vacated by the birds I had it 

 removed, and it is now the property of the Bombay 

 Natural History Society. The tree in which the nest 

 was built grows on the slope of a steep hill, so that one 

 had only to ascend a couple of paces in order to look 

 right down into the nest. This latter is a work of art. 



If you would make an imitation of it, and, no matter 

 how deft your fingers be, the imitation would, I fear, 

 fall far short of the genuine article, you had best 

 purchase a small bunch of violets. The bunch should 

 be of the description sold by flower-girls for button- 

 holes. It should be well put together, the stalks being 

 tightly bound up with any fibrous material. 



57 



