REPRODUCTION— NIDIFICATION 183 



More remarkable structures than any we have yet noticed 

 are the hanging nests of many of the Sun-birds, Hangnests, 

 Weaver-birds and lastly the "Tailor-bird". These nests 

 afford us a forcible illustration of the apathy of Ornithologists 

 for anything more than mere collecting or species-making, or 

 the record of bald or obvious statements of fact ; inasmuch as 

 among the Hangnests {Icteridce) a great diversity in the form 

 of the nest and in its site is exhibited, some species nesting 

 on the ground, others in reeds or tussocks of grass, and others 

 again in trees, these last presenting a very remarkable degree 

 of specialisation in their architecture, while those of the first of 

 this series are simple in type. Yet no attempt has been made 

 to trace out the several stages in the evolution from the one 

 extreme to the other. Unfortunately, this cannot be done here, 

 as owing to neglect of this most interesting question sufficient 

 material has not been collected to make the chain complete. 



The Sun-birds appear always to suspend their nests, which 

 are built of fine hair-like roots, fine grass and wool. They are 

 pocket-shaped structures provided with a more or less steeple- 

 like dome, the apex of which seems to suspend the whole, 

 while above the entrance it is produced to form deep over- 

 hanging eaves. 



The Hangnests of North and South America {IcteridcB) 

 build, as we have just remarked, various kinds of nests, but we 

 can here refer only to the very highly specialised suspended 

 type, which havfe the shape of a Florence-flask with an 

 enormously long neck. These nests are made of long, fine 

 grass with an entrance hole near the middle of the flask. Yet 

 more wonderful are the nests of some of the Weaver-birds — and 

 here also transitional types of increasing complexity are to be 

 found — the typical forms of which may be described as retort- 

 shaped. Strongly wrought of fine grass stems or fine roots, 

 these nests are globular in form and suspended by a long rope, 

 while entrance is gained by a tubular aperture generally placed 

 at the bottom of the nest ; it forms indeed a sort of covered way 

 added on to the more normal pocket-shaped structures of this 

 kind built by other species. Both sexes are said to take part 

 in the work of building, the rope-like suspensory portion being 

 first formed, and this is continued downwards to end in a large 

 loop, the inner entrance to the nest, From this loop the sides 



