Some Foreign Bird Architects. 



chiefly composed of fine cotton wool, with a few horse- 

 hairs, and, at times, a few very fine grass stems as a 

 lining, apparently to keep the wool in its place and 

 enable the cavity to retain permanently its shape. I 

 have found the nests with three leaves fastened, at 

 equal distances from each other, into the sides of the 

 nest, and not joined to each other at all. I have found 

 them between two leaves the one forming a high back, 

 and turned up at the end to support the bottom of 

 the nest ; the other hiding the nest in front, and hang- 

 ing down well below it, the tip only of the first leaf 

 being sewn to the middle of the second. I have found 

 them with four leaves sewn together to form a canopy 

 and sides, from which the bottom of the nest depended 

 bare ; and I have found them between two long leaves 

 whose sides, from the very tips to near the peduncles, 

 were closely and neatly sewn together. For sewing 

 they generally use cobwebs; but silk from cocoons, 

 thread, wool, and vegetable fibres are all useful." Of 

 a nest which the same writer obtained at Bareilly he 

 states that " three of the long, ovato-lanceolate leaves 

 of the mango, whose peduncles sprang from the same 

 point, had been neatly drawn together with gossamer 

 threads run through the sides of the leaves and knotted 

 outside, so as to form a cavity like the end of a netted 

 purse, with a wide slit on the side nearest the trunk, 

 beginning near the bottom, and widening upwards. 

 Inside this the real nest, nearly three inches deep, and 

 about two inches in diameter, was neatly constructed of 

 wool and fine vegetable fibres, the bottom being thinly 

 lined with horsehair. In this lay three tiny delicate 

 bluish-white eggs, with a few pale reddfeh-brown 



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