OPEN NESTS 205 



out a great many of these instances, one of the most 

 interesting and illustrative being the nest of the Com- 

 mon Chaffinch. Other instances may be found in 

 such species as the Minivets (Campephagidae), the nest 

 of one of these birds found in China (the Pericrocotus 

 griseignlaris of Gould) being a small cup made of a 

 certain filiform lichen, a few pine needles, and a flat 

 lichen with finely scalloped edges, reddish brown 

 underneath, with hairy black roots. The nest is 

 completely plastered outside, and partly inside w4th 

 this latter material, only a bit or two of moss being 

 added, and has in consequence a peculiar black and 

 green appearance. The whole is cemented together 

 with cob-webs, and placed on the branch of a pine 

 tree, where it is in perfect harmony with surrounding 

 objects. Then we might mention as an instance the 

 nest of Tharrhaleus jerdoni, a species breeding in 

 Kashmir. A nest of this bird placed on a pollard 

 birch tree about eight feet from the ground was made 

 of moss, birch bark, reed stalks, and lined with hair 

 and a fev/ feathers. Its external mosaic of bits of 

 birch bark, with which it was completely covered, 

 made it exactly resemble the adjoining bough, and 

 rendered it "very difficult to discover" {Ihis, 1898, 

 p. 27). The nests of the Humming-birds supply us with 

 many more interesting examples, as we have already 

 noted. One of the most remarkable of these is fur- 

 nished by the nest of a Humming-bird {Orthorhynchus 

 cristatus) called in Barbados the •♦ Doctor Bird." Col. 



