212 Wonders of the Bird World 



oblique position among the branches. The entrance is at 

 the top, and a crooked or spiral passage-way leads down to 

 the lower extremity where the breeding chamber is situ- 

 ated ; this is lined with wool and soft grass, and five white 

 eggs are laid, varying considerably in form, some being 

 much more sharply pointed than others." 



Moss-nests are among the most beautiful of the structures 

 for which birds are responsible, especially as in most cases 

 the exterior of the nest is decorated with lichens and other 

 grey material, such as spiders'-webs, which often make the 

 nest appear like a small excrescence on the branch, and 

 thus succeed in protecting it from observation. Some of 

 the greatest adepts of this art of concealment are found 

 among our British species, such as the Chaffinch and the 

 Goldfinch, both of which build beautiful nests of moss 

 ornamented with lichen, but in the case of some foreign 

 birds the concealment of the nest among the surrounding 

 mosses is carried out to an extreme, and it is impossible 

 to detect it in the midst of the hanging moss or lichen. 

 Some species, such as Whitehead's Broadbill {Calyptoniena 

 ivhiteheadi) from the mountains of Northern Borneo, make 

 their nest out of the same lichens which hang from the 

 surrounding trees in the forests damp with their continual 

 rain. The nest is rather substantially built in the shape of 

 a purse, and the lichens are woven into it and round the 

 slender branch from which it is suspended, ending in a 

 pointed tail of lichen, so as exactly to resemble the 

 streamers of moss which hang from the trees on every side. 



Some of the smaller birds most artfully conceal their 

 nests in this way, and in the Bird Gallery at the Natural 

 History Museum will be seen a capital example in the nest 

 of the Black-cheeked Hill-Tit ( Yiiliina iiigrimentuvL), where 

 the bird has built its little home under a narrow bough so 

 thickly covered with lichens and silvery moss that the nest 

 looks like part of the tree. The Small Warblers of 



