FIELD AND FOREST. 1 67 



made but to no purpose. Weeks passed, but the fate of the missing 

 cap remained a mystery. Autumn came ; the leaves began to fall. 

 when the cap was discovered and the mystery solved. 



Suspended from the branch of a tree, not far from the dwelling 

 house, hung a remarkable bag like structure, which, upon examina" 

 tion, proved to be an embroidered bird nest. The long lost cap was 

 found; it had been used as a foundation for the nest. The strings 

 were interwoven with threads and fastened to a couple of forked twige, 

 after the fashion of Baltimores in building their singularly neat nests. 

 What was once an embroidered cap was then a closely interwoven 

 piece of architecture, a medley of thread, horse-hair, lace and em- 

 broidery, the latter of course, rent and discolored from exposure 

 to the weather. 



This nest was kept for some time and made a valuable acquisition 

 to the cabinet. Fine threads of grass and horse-hair had been deli- 

 cately woven into the meshes of the lace and through the openings 

 of the needle work ; giving evidence not only of the superior skill of 

 these birds in nest building, but that they have, when an opportunity 

 effers a remarkably extravagant taste in selecting materials. 



M. E. Banning. 



On a Remarkable New Generic Type of Characins. 



More than ten years ago, I discovered and laid aside in the Museum 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, a specimen representing a previously 

 unnamed genus of Characins, which was strikingly distinct from any 

 recognized by other naturalists. I delayed the announcement in the 

 hopes of being able to publish it in connection with a revision of the 

 whole family, but I deem it now expedient to publish it without 

 further procrastination. The genus may be calleJ and distinguished 

 as follows : 



Elopomorphus. 



Curimatine Characinids with an elongated fusiform body; rounded 

 belly ; conic head, with the operculum very oblique ; mouth terminal 

 and apparantly transverse, but capable of considerable distension, 



