DOMED OR ROOFED NESTS 223 



grass and vegetable down. The Magnificent Sun-bird 

 {jSthopyga magnifica) i of the same locality, builds a 

 nest on the same hooded plan, of fine grass and roots, 

 palm fibres, and bits of dead leaves, bound together 

 with webs, and lined with dead flowers of various 

 grasses and seeds. The nest of the White-bellied 

 Sun-bird (^. Bella) also from these islands, is, how- 

 ever, a much longer structure, although porched in 

 the same way, with a pendent mass of material hang- 

 ing from the bottom. Other species in this genus 

 are very fond of attaching their nests to tall fronds of 

 bracken and ferns. Some of these nests are pear- 

 shaped, others are oval, and both types want the 

 hood or porch, such a common feature in the more 

 typical species. The nest of the Indian ^Ethopyga 

 ignicauda is often attached to a bracken frond, and 

 is made of vegetable down, and bits of green moss 

 bound together with webs and a few long strips of 

 grass, the latter being wound round the nest and 

 utilised to bind or fasten it to the supporting frond. 

 The entrance is near the top, and the whole structure, 

 only four or five inches in length, looks like an un- 

 usually full-shaped pear. The nest of the allied 

 ^thopyga dabryi is oval in shape, with an entrance 

 near the middle, also hung to a bracken frond, the 

 latter being interwoven with the roof material, the 

 whole being formed of vegetable down and long strips 

 of fine dead grass. I have already alluded to the 

 1 Unfortunately made to appear in the illustration pendulous. 



