156 DALMATIAN NUTHATCH. 



were it not that the dark shades of the entrance hole 

 sometimes reveal its existence. One which I recently 

 found near the town of Magnesia, on a commanding 

 rock, had a diameter of ten inches, and very nearly 

 six in depth. The upper wall was three inches thick, 

 and the sides and under wall about four fifths of an 

 inch, while the depth of the neck and entrance hole 

 was two inches. The weight of the whole was upwards 

 of five hundred drachms, (sixty-three ounces!) allowing 

 for that part of it which I could not cut away from 

 the rock. It is quite clear that this bird cannot build 

 every year a new nest so large and heavy, but that it 

 must last a long time, even for a whole life. Eound 

 the hole, which is chosen for the building of the nest, 

 and also over the nest itself, is a quantity of resin, 

 which is mixed with the other materials, and with earth. 

 This resin it gets especially from Pistacea terehinthus 

 and lentiscus. When melted by the warmth of the 

 sun, it runs down and gives the nest a very firm hold 

 of the rock, and will bear a great weight. 



Having mixed together feathers and fibres with clay 

 and cement out of the water, to which hairs and threads 

 are sometimes added, it shapes its nest in the form of 

 a flask, with a round opening of one inch and one fifth 

 in diameter. The inside of the nest is more regular 

 than the outside, but not very smooth, both having 

 throughout a granular surface, which is covered by the 

 small pieces of earth stuck one above another. The 

 outer side differs also from the inner, in being covered 

 with resin and a red sticky mass, perhaps taken from 

 the poplar. When this is melted by the sun it not 

 only makes the whole impervious to wet, but makes it 

 in appearance similar to the wall on which it is placed. 

 It is not possible to examine this structure without 



