CONCEALED OR COVERED NESTS 119 



so far as is known, seek shelter in some suitable hole 

 in a tree, where they incubate their two eggs. Then 

 we have the Barbets and the Honey Guides, together 

 forming the family Capitonidae, and numbering more 

 than one hundred species, distributed over the tropics, 

 and breeding in holes in trees which the latter select, 

 so far as I can ascertain, ready for the purpose, but the 

 former undoubtedly in many cases bore for themselves. 

 Our last most important assemblage in this class is the 

 extensive order of Parrots (Psittaciformes). Nearly 

 all these birds breed in holes in trees, which they choose 

 ready made. Some of these holes extend for long 

 distances into the timber. Mr D. Le Souef records 

 that he found the eggs of the Crimson-winged Lory 

 {Ptistes coccineopterus), in Northern Australia, at the 

 bottom of a spout of a eucalyptus tree ten feet from 

 the entrance. Others (including some of the South 

 American Parraquets) resort to burrows in white ants' 

 nests. Parrots make no nest as a rule, but some of 

 the Australian Cockatoos make more elaborate pro- 

 vision. Thus Microglossus aterrimus chooses a hollow 

 in some tree and lines the bottom for some depth with 

 pieces of broken twigs from scrub trees, the apparent 

 reason being to preserve the single white egg from 

 the moisture that is apt to accumulate during tbe 

 rainy season — the period of its reproduction. The 

 Hoopoes (Upupidse) form another small group of hole 

 nesting species, but they are not absolutely confined 

 to holes in trees, occasionally using a hole in a wall 



