264 TITMOUSE. 



Inhabits the Cape of Good Hope, and constructs a nest like a 

 bottle, with a short neck ; it is composed of a kind of cotton, and 

 placed in the thickest shrubs ; the neck of it is narrow, and on the 

 outside a sort of additional nest, serving- for the lodgment of the male 

 while the female sits, or broods the young within. It is said, that 

 when the female goes out of the nest, the male strikes against the 

 outside with all the force of his wing, by which the edges of the 

 entrance collapse together, so as to prevent the intrusion of any thing 

 to injure the young in her absence. 



Thunberg, in his Travels, mentions a bird at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, by the name of Kapock Bird, which " forms its nest (which 

 " is as curious as it is beautiful, and is of the thickness of a coarse 

 " worsted stocking) from the down of the Wild Rosemary Tree ;"* 

 probably he means this Species. 



20— PINC-PINC TITMOUSE. 



Le Pinc-pinc, Levail. Afr. iii. 127. pi. 131. 



SIZE of a Wren. Bill and irides brown ; the plumage somewhat 

 resembles that of a Lark, the feathers being dusky brown, darker in 

 the middle; beneath rufous white, dotted with brown; rump and 

 lower belly pale rufous ; tail very short, but slightly cuneiform, or 

 rather rounded at the end, and dusky ; the feathers light brown 

 outwardly, and the ends white ; legs dull yellow. The female is like 

 the male, but the colours less brilliant. 



Inhabits the Cape of Good Hope, and makes a singular nest of 

 a roundish shape, having a kind of elevated neck, forming a narrow 

 entrance, so that it has somewhat the appearance of a small nest 

 placed upon a larger; it is irregular outwardly, but better put 

 together within ; the inside smooth and strong ; it is made of the 



* Eriocephalus. 



