234 BIRDS' NESTS 



loop, until a firm foundation had been made for the 

 quantities of fine black moss roots which formed 

 the inner structure and lining. No entrance hole 

 was required, the birds passing in and out between 

 the moss clump and the tree trunk. On other occa- 

 sions a certain amount of added moss is worked into 

 the growing mass, until a sufficiently large bag with 

 a side entrance has been made, which is lined with 

 fibres and fine brown grass stems. An example of 

 the other type of nest was wedged under a mass of 

 yellow-flowered orchid, and rested upon a small stump 

 jutting from the fallen tree trunk, which was almost 

 concealed by dense masses of ferns, mosses, and 

 other vegetable parasites. This nest was globular, 

 made of the brightest and freshest moss, and lined 

 with the finest roots of the same. The leaves and 

 flowers of the orchid drooped over and concealed the 

 entrance, whilst the green moss of which it was made 

 exactly resembled the other moss growing in clumps 

 all around it. This ball-like nest was about four inches 

 high, three inches in diameter, and the entrance hole 

 about an inch wide. A more open nest is made by 

 the Indian Elachura haplonota. One of the nests 

 of this new species (closely allied to the much more 

 widely dispersed E. punctata) was placed on a heap 

 of dead leaves, broken twigs, and branches in a hollow 

 below a fallen tree, and was supported on each side 

 by a broken branch. It was largely composed of dead 

 leaves, skeleton leaves, cemented together with coarse 



