268 BIRDS' NESTS 



to encourage discovery rather than to evade it. Some 

 of the birds, however, building the more intermediate 

 types of pendulous nest, take pains to hide their nests 

 amongst the leaves at the extremities of drooping 

 branches ; others make their homes resemble drift or 

 masses of rubbish lodged in the trees. The safety of 

 the truly pendulous nest, hovi^ever, does not depend 

 in any way upon its concealment, that safety is 

 derived from the peculiarities of the position in 

 which it is placed, at the extremities of slender 

 branches. 



As we have already seen, this situation is selected 

 for the nest by a great number of species breeding in 

 the warmest regions of the earth. These regions 

 abound in the most deadly enemies to birds and eggs, 

 and it is only reasonable to expect that the most 

 elaborate methods are there pursued in order to 

 defeat them. Some of the most dreaded of these 

 enemies are monkeys, lizards and snakes, but even 

 these agile creatures are absolutely baffled in their 

 attempts to reach nests suspended so airily, brooding 

 parent and precious eggs swinging in safety far from 

 the ground or over deep waters, which such creatures 

 specially avoid. 



Our review of avine architecture is now brought to 

 a close. All things considered, it may be regarded as 

 reasonably complete. It is, of course, impossible to 

 deal with the nidification of some twelve thousand 

 species of birds, even if the nests or methods of 



