REPRODUCTION— NIDIFICATION i8i 



grass seems to form the foundation, and is wound horizontally 

 round about the stems of three or four tall reeds, while the seed- 

 heads and wool are used to fill up the interstices. The com- 

 plete nest measures about five inches in depth, three inches 

 across the top, enclosing a cavity of some three inches in 

 depth, lined with very fine grass and long hairs. So securely is 

 this cradle fixed, and so great is its depth, that even when the 

 supporting reeds are bent low by the wind, so low that the nest 

 may almost touch the water, the eggs will not roll out, nor is 

 the sitting bird apparently discomfited. 



Pensile nests are built by many species, though the more 

 remarkable instances must be studied in the birds of other lands. 

 At least one good example, however, may not infrequently be 

 met with in Great Britain, the builder thereof being the smallest 

 of our native birds — the Golden-crested Wren {Regulus cris- 

 tatus). The materials chosen are the softest moss and wool, 

 held together by means of spiders' webs and long grasses, while 

 small feathers are finally added to form the lining. The whole 

 structure is suspended after the fashion of a hammock, to the 

 under side of the slender twigs at the end of a branch of such 

 trees as fir, yew or cedar, only with this difference, that while 

 the hammocks swing at the ends of long cords this nest is 

 braced up close to the branch. The Golden Oriole similarly 

 suspends its nest, which is built up of sheep's wool, fibres of 

 roots and long slender stems of grass beautifully interwoven, 

 while flowering heads of grasses are used to form a lining in the 

 place of feathers. But while the Oriole appears always to sus- 

 pend its nest, this rule is not so closely followed by the Golden- 

 crested Wren, which will occasionally build upon the upper 

 surface of a branch, or against the trank of a tree upon the base 

 of a diverging branch, thus reverting to the more normal habit. 



The purse-like nests of the Flower Peckers {Diceum) and 

 of the Penduline Tits (p. 184) and Humming-birds (p. 182) are 

 even more beautiful examples of nest-building, being made al- 

 most entirely of cotton-down, as also are those of the Crowned 

 Titmice {/Egithalus). 



It has already been shown that species which commonly 

 build a pensile nest will on occasion revert to the normal 

 fashion of resting the nest on the bough. Similarly, when a 

 number of distinct species are found to have acquired the 



