OPEN NESTS 197 



weeds, these materials being wound loosely round and 

 round and not interlaced, and finally finished off with 

 a bed of very fine grass laid in a similar way. In some 

 nests fronds of fern moss are used. They are shallow, 

 the egg cavity measuring little more than an inch in 

 depth. The nest of the Finch-billed Bulbul {Spizixus 

 canifrons) is a specially remarkable one, for the bird 

 is said to use scarcely any other material in its con- 

 struction but the tendrils of various climbing plants. 

 According to Mr Stewart Baker, to whom I am 

 much indebted for many particulars concerning the 

 nests of these and other Indian species, as recorded 

 by him in the Ibis, almost any kind of tendril 

 sufficiently pliable is used for the outer part of 

 the nest, but for the inner part the bird prefers 

 the fine but strong tendrils of the small yellow 

 ground-convolvulus. As a rule no real lining is 

 inserted, but in some nests a scrap or two of bracken, 

 or even more rarely a few bents or grass stems. The 

 nest is usually built in stunted bushes and saplings, 

 wedged in between several upright twigs, less fre- 

 quently in a stout fork. Blyth's Bulbul {Xanthixus 

 flavescens) makes a rather neat and compact but 

 shallow nest of twigs, stems of weeds, roots of ferns, 

 dark-coloured tendrils and less frequently dead leaves 

 and fern stems, lined with grasses, especially the flower- 

 ing ends from which the seeds have been stripped. 

 This nest is built in dense bushes, in a cluster of 

 twigs or thick forks, from three to five feet from the 



