430 Mr. H. Stuart Dove on the 



bird whose disappearance, if civilization and cultivation 

 should eventually ruthlessly cause its extinction, would be a 

 lamentable loss to ornithology. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIII. 



Heads of Pelecanus thagus. 

 Fig. 1. Female, Ofrenda Baj^, Ancon. 21. x. 12". 

 Fig. 2. Male from Mid-Chincha Island. 29. xii. 12. 

 Fig. 3. Female from Lobes de Tierra Island. 23. vi. 12. 

 Fig. 4. Male from North Chincha Island. 2. i. 13. 



XXIV. — On a Peculiarity in the Nest of the Tasmanian 

 Tit (Acanthiza diemenensis). By H. Stuart Dove, 

 M.R.AO.U. 



(Plate XIV.*) 



John Burroughs, the veteran naturalist of North America, 

 in his ^ Ways of Nature,' has the following remarks con- 

 cerning birds and their use of string as a nesting material: — 

 " Who ever saw any of our common birds display any sense 

 or judgment in the handling of strings ? Strings are a 

 comparatively new thing with birds ; they are not a natural 

 product, and, as a matter of course, birds blunder in handling 

 them. Tlie Oriole {Icterus galbula) uses them the most 

 successfully, often attaching her pensile nef<t to the branch by 

 their aid. But she uses them in a blind, childish way, 

 winding them round and round the branch, often getting 

 them looped over a twig or hopelessly tangled, and now and 

 then hanging herself with them, as is the case with other 

 birds. 



" I have seen a photograph of an Orlole^s nest that had 

 a string carried round a branch apparently a foot or more 

 away, and then brought back and the end woven into the 

 nest. It was given as a sample of a well-guyed nest, the 

 discoverer no doubt looking upon it as proof of an Oriole^s 

 forethought in providing against winds and storms. I have 



* For explanation of the plate see p. 422. 



