174 BIRDS' NESTS 



sometimes cemented with mud or clay, and lined with 

 moss, roots, strips of bark, and grass, the latter either 

 in a dry or half-green state. Although the extreme 

 diameter of the nest may be a foot or more, and its 

 total height about half as much, the cup containing 

 the egg is no more than four inches m diameter and 

 two inches in depth. Both Jays and Nutcrackers are 

 solitary during the nesting season, but some of the 

 Crows are very gregarious at that time. 



Following the Crows, and somewhat closely allied 

 to them, we have those wonderful avine forms the 

 Birds of Paradise (Paradiseidse). Unfortunately the 

 nests of very few species are known to science, and 

 possibly when more are discovered there will be a 

 much greater amount of variation in the type of nest 

 than is now suspected. Speaking generally, the nests 

 of the Birds of Paradise are placed in bushes and 

 trees. They are of the open cup-shaped type, formed 

 of sticks and twigs, and lined with dead leaves, moss, 

 fibres and grass. Detailed descriptions of one or two 

 of the more aberrant forms may, however, be given. 

 In 1898 Mr D. Le Souef described the nest of Gould's 

 Manucode {Manucodia goiildi) from a specimen taken 

 near Cape York in Queensland. He informs us that 

 it is a shallow open structure, made of curly vine 

 tendrils, the inside being lined with similar but finer 

 material ; whilst on the branch on which the nest 

 was built, and in conjunction with it, an orchid was 

 growing, a portion of which plant had been worked 



