ORDEK ACCIPITRES. 133 



and transport the materials with which she operates. Some 

 males even do not give themselves any trouble about the matter. 

 The female, bending and interlacing the sprigs of dried plants, 

 gives the first form and solidity to the nest ; and, in proportion 

 as she furnishes it, pressing on the materials which she has 

 accumulated, separating and arranging them by the movements 

 of her body, she finally puts the entire into a suitable form. 



The monogamous species construct by far the most perfect 

 nests, and the most artificially disposed. Our chaffinches, 

 goldfinches, &c., form nests well tissued without, warm and 

 downy within, of an hemispherical form, and fixed with much 

 art between the branches of trees. The bullfinch takes par- 

 ticular care to have an opening only on the side least exposed 

 to the wind. The hoopoe, the pici, the wren, place their nests 

 in the hollows of trees. The loriot suspends its nest on the 

 bifurcations of the branches, and covers it over like a havre- 

 sack. The swallow is peculiarly admirable in the formation 

 of its nest, which it glues in the angles of windows and chim- 

 neys, and cements very solidly with clay, thickened with straws 

 and hairs, and furnished inside with feathers or down. It only 

 leaves a small aperture on the side. The remtz {parus pen- 

 dulinus) has the art of weaving the down of the willow- 

 flower, of the poplar, of the thistle, of the dandelion, and thus 

 fabricating a thick felt, or sort of cloth, the woof of which it 

 strengthens by filaments of plants, and gives it the form of a 

 pear hollowed inside, and wadded within with the same down, 

 not thus manufactured. The aperture is placed on the side, 

 and provided with a ledge, which the bird can close. But, 

 above all, this little being has the address to attach this nest, 

 with the flax of hemp or the nettle, to a moveable branch, 

 suspended over a running stream, so that no animal, such as 

 the rat, lizard, or snake, can destroy its family. Others of the 

 pari, or tomtits, as that of the Cape, the guit-guit, many of 

 the gross-beaks, put in operation all the resources of archi- 

 tecture, to lodge their little ones. 



