OPEN NESTS 205 



out a great many of these instances, one of the most 

 interesting and illustrative being the nest of the Com- 

 mon Chaffinch. Other instances may be found in 

 such species as the Minivets (Campephagidae), the nest 

 of one of these birds found in China (the Pericrocotus 

 griseigularis of Gould) being a small cup made of a 

 certain filiform lichen, a few pine needles, and a flat 

 lichen with finely scalloped edges, reddish brown 

 underneath, with hairy black roots. The nest is 

 completely plastered outside, and partly inside with 

 this latter material, only a bit or two of moss being 

 added, and has in consequence a peculiar black and 

 green appearance. The whole is cemented together 

 with cob-webs, and placed on the branch of a pine 

 tree, where it is in perfect harmony with surrounding 

 objects. Then we might mention as an instance the 

 nest of Tharrhaleus jerdoni, a species breeding in 

 Kashmir. A nest of this bird placed on a pollard 

 birch tree about eight feet from the ground was made 

 of moss, birch bark, reed stalks, and lined with hair 

 and a few feathers. Its external mosaic of bits of 

 birch bark, with which it was completely covered, 

 made it exactly resemble the adjoining bough, and 

 rendered it "very difficult to discover" (Ibis, 1898, 

 p. 27). The nests of the Humming-birds supply us with 

 many more interesting examples, as we have already 

 noted. One of the most remarkable of these is fur- 

 nished by the nest of a Humming-bird {Orthorhynchus 

 cristatus) called in Barbados the " Doctor Bird." Col. 



