220 BIRDS' NESTS 



These domed nests are in use almost all the year 

 round, brood after brood being reared in them, and 

 they are also used as roosting-places during the colder 

 months. So intricately are they woven that the 

 discovery of the entrance hole is impossible. Another 

 dome-building Finch is the West Indian Phonipara 

 zena, which places its grass - formed nests (very 

 similar to that of the Willow Wren) in the tufted head 

 of spines on the top of a pine-apple ; another the 

 Central American Embernagra striaticeps, which forms 

 a bulky roofed nest of dry leaves and stalks lined with 

 grass in a fan palm leaf a few feet from the ground. 



The Larks (Alaudidae) are another group of open 

 cup-shaped nest-builders, but as already shown there 

 are certain exceptions even here. The Bush Larks 

 (Mirafra) are like the other species terrestrial in their 

 nidification, but form their grass-made nests on a 

 domed model, concealing them amongst herbage. 

 The same remarks may be said to apply to the Wood 

 Warblers (Mniotiltidse), some of the species (Siurus) 

 arching over their nests, or even constructing domed 

 nests, as in the case of the Yellow-bird {Dendrceca 

 capital is). 



In the nests of the Sun-birds (Nectariniidae) we are 

 introduced to a type of architecture thoroughly 

 characteristic of the present division of domed or 

 roofed abodes. These nests, however, present a con- 

 siderable amount of variation in their model, ranging 

 from the open cup-shaped type of birds in the genera 



