So ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



is usually built in a crevice close to the stream 

 sometimes actually behind a cascade, in a nook of 

 the tree-roots, where the humidity of the situation 

 keeps the external material fresh and green. The 

 Great Titmouse is another clever worker in felt, 

 sometimes making a ball-like nest of moss, and 

 hair, and wool, lined with feathers, in an old 

 squirrel's drey, or in the deserted nest of a Crow 

 or Magpie. The Long-tailed Titmouse, one of 

 the smallest of our British birds, also makes a 

 felt-like nest, spherical in shape, with a hole for 

 ingress on one side near the top. I have a nest 

 of this bird with two holes, one of them provided 

 with a flap or trap-door of felted moss, which 

 opened and closed as the birds went in and out. 

 The materials used are precisely similar to those 

 selected by the Chaffinch ; but the nest, instead 

 of being on the larger branches or in a crotch, is 

 usually placed among the more slender twigs often 

 of the holly or the prickly gorse. The Wren also 

 ranks as a felt-maker, some of its nests being so 

 strongly put together as to require considerable 

 force to pull them in pieces. 



6. Weavers. The birds in this division are 

 remarkable for the skill and dexterity with which 

 they fabricate their nests out of various textile 

 materials, rarely if ever using twigs or sticks in 

 their construction. Best known of all the weavers 

 is the House Sparrow. Singularly enough this 

 bird makes two very distinct types of nest one a 

 slovenly structure in holes of trees and buildings, 



