212 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



cisticola) has a similar method of action, though the nest cannot 

 be ranked among the pensiles. 



This bird builds among reeds, sewing together a number of 

 their flat blades in order to make a hollow wherein its nest may 

 be hidden ; but the method which it employs is not precisely the 

 same as that which is used by the tailor bird. Instead of 

 passing its thread continuously through the holes, and thus 

 sewing the leaves together, it has a great number of threads, 

 and makes a knot at the end of each, in order to prevent it 

 from being puUed through the hole. A description and beautiful 

 figure of this bird may be seen in Gould's " Birds of Europe," 

 Vol. ii. 



The odd little titmice can be admitted among the Pensile 

 Birds, as one of them constructs a habitation as purely pensile 

 as any which has yet been mentioned, and which yields in 

 beauty to none. This is the Penduiine Titmouse (JEgitJialiis 

 pendulinus), a native of Southern and Eastern Europe. As is 

 the case with aU its family, it is a little bird, scarcely exceeding 

 four inches in length, and being marked with pleasing though 

 not very brilliant colours. In general habits it resembles the 

 bearded titmouse of England, haunting the sides of streams, 

 and feeding upon the seeds of aquatic plants, as well as upon 

 the various insects, larvae, and small molluscs that are found 

 so plentifully in the water. 



The chief point of interest in this bird is, however, concen- 

 trated in its nest, which is made in a flask-like shape, and is 

 mostly suspended to the extremity of some twig that overhangs 

 the water. Willows, and other trees that are fond of the water, 

 are favoured residences of this curious little bird. The larger 

 end of the nest hangs downwards, so that at a little distance 

 it looks like a huge pear with a rather long stem. The material 

 of the nest is the cottony down of the willow and poplar, and 

 the opening is always at the side. The position chosen is not 

 invariably at the end of a twig, as the nest is sometimes found 

 among the reeds, hidden by their tliick stems from observation. 



