214 Wonders of the Bird World 



the case of the Yellow-throated Warbler of Australia 

 {Sericornis citreogiilaris), the little bird selects some hanging 

 branch of a moss, which grows in the dense and humid 

 forests, and often hangs down in long streamers a yard in 

 length from the end of the drooping branches. Into these 

 moss-streamers the Warbler penetrates and builds its nest 

 in securit)', as there is nothing to show that the pendent 



Nest of a Ptndutiiie Tit (half natural size), from East Africa. 



mass of moss is inhabited or differs in any way from the 

 others which hang on every side in the vicinity. Other 

 species of the genus Sericornis build rounded nests of 

 moss at the end of overhanging branches, and either make 

 them of the shape of the lumps of moss which are to be 

 seen everywhere around them, or else decorate their nests 

 with lichen so that they cannot be distinguished from any 

 of the tufts of moss on the neighbouring branches. In the 

 nest of one little Warbler {Geobasilcus clirysorrhceus) from 



