DOMED OR ROOFED NESTS 233 



materials may consist of moss, dead fronds of ferns, 

 dry leaves and grass, and lichens. The lining is not 

 so variable, and usually consists of green moss, hair, 

 and feathers. The entrance to this ball-like nest is 

 generally on the front near the top, less frequently on 

 the side, and almost invariably it is bound round with 

 straws, or dry grass stalks, twigs, or even roots, thus 

 rendering secure and strong that part of the structure 

 subject to the greatest amount of wear. Some of the 

 most beautiful nests of the Wren that I have ever seen 

 were made externally of fern fronds, or of greenest 

 moss studded with bits of lichen and cob-web. The 

 nests of some of the exotic members of this family 

 are equally pretty. That of the Pnoepyga pusilla, a 

 species found in India and China, has been most fully 

 described by Messrs Stuart Baker, and La Touche ; 

 and from those naturalists' accounts I draw the fol- 

 lowing particulars. This Wren builds its nest amongst 

 xnosses hanging from trees and rocks, masses of 

 orchids and other parasitic plants, clumps of ferns, 

 and so forth. Two distinct types of nest are made 

 by this species. An example of one of these was 

 placed inside a large tuft of brilliant green moss 

 growing from the trunk of a big tree in an evergreen 

 forest. The bird in the first place seemed to have 

 attached some of the loose lower ends of the hanging 

 moss fibres to rough projections on the bark of the 

 tree, forming a sort of loop beside it. Then more and 

 more of the living growing moss was worked into this 



