Birds. 1811 



was too smooth to be climbed, and as we watched beneath for the birds to return, one 

 and another came, but charily, and entered their respective nests. Although several 

 other cocoa-nuts were close by, I could not discern that any one of them was tenanted 

 but this, and this so numerously, whence I inferred the social disposition of the bird. 

 At some distance we found another tree, at the foot of which lay the dried fronds, 

 spadices, and spathes, which had been, in the course of growth, thrown off; and in 

 these were many nests. They were formed chiefly in the hollow spathes, and were 

 placed in a series of three or four in a spathe, one above another, and agglutinated 

 together, but with a kind of gallery along the side communicating with each. The 

 material seemed only feathers and silk-cotton (the down of the Bombax) ; the former 

 very largely used, the most downy placed within, the cotton principally without; the 

 whole felted closely, and cemented together by some slimy fluid, now dry, probably the 

 saliva. With this they were glued to the spathe, and that so strongly, that in tearing 

 one out it brought away the integument of the spathe. The walls of the nests, though 

 for the most part only about a quarter of an inch thick, were felted so strongly as to 

 be tenacious almost as cloth. Some were placed within those spathes that yet con- 

 tained the spadices; and in this case the various footstalks of the fruit were enclosed 

 in a large mass of the materials, the walls being greatly thickened. All the nests 

 were evidently old ones, for the Bombax had not yet perfected its cotton ; and hence 

 I infer that these birds continue from year to year to occupy the same nests, until they 

 are thrown off by the growth of the tree. The entrance to the nests, which were sub- 

 globular, was near the bottom." — p. 60. 



" Near the middle of May, my servant Sam, being engaged at Culloden, in West- 

 moreland parish, cutting the fronds of the palmetto (Chamcerops) for thatching, found 

 these little birds nestling in abundance, and procured for me many nests of the present 

 season. Their recent construction, and perhaps the diversity of their situation — for 

 instead of the hollow of a spathe these were attached to the plaited surface of the 

 fronds — gave them a different appearance from the former specimens. Many of these 

 I have now in my possession. They have a singularly hairy appearance, being com- 

 posed almost exclusively of the flax-like cotton of the Bombax, and, when separated, 

 are not unlike a doll's wig. They are in the form of those watch-fobs which are hung 

 at beds' heads, the backs being firmly glued by saliva to the under surface of 

 the fronds, the impressions of the plaits of which are conspicuous on the nests when 

 separated. The thickness is slight in the upper part, but in the lower it is much in- 

 creased, the depth of the cup descending very little below the opening. The cotton is 

 cemented firmly together, as in the case of the others, but externally it is allowed to 

 hang in filamentous locks, having a woolly, but not altogether a ragged appearance. 

 A few feathers are intermixed, but only singly, and not in any part specially. One 

 specimen is double, two nests having been constructed so close side by side, that there 

 is but a partition wall between them. Many nests had eggs, but in throwing down 

 the fronds all were broken but one, which I now have. It is pure white, unspotted, 

 larger at one end, measuring thirteen-twentieths of an inch by nine twentieths. The 

 average dimensions of the nests were about 5 inches high, and 3i wide." — p. 62. 



The Green Tody or Robin Redbreast (Todus viridis). — " One captured with a net 

 in April, on being turned into a room, began immediately to catch flies and other mi- 

 nute insects that flitted about, particularly little destructive Tineadae that infested my 

 dried birds. At this employment he continued incessantly, and most successfully, all 



