﻿PENDULOUS NESTS. 



185 



— <f The Cape titmouse constructs its luxurious nest of 

 the pappus, or down of a species of Aselepius. This 

 nest is made of the texture of flannel, and the fleecy 

 hosiery is not more soft. Near the upper end projects 

 a small tube about an inch in length, with an orifice 

 about three-fourths of an inch in diameter. Immedi- 

 ately under the tube is a small hole in the side, that has 

 no communication with the interior part of the nest. 

 In this hole the male sits at nights, and thus they are 

 both screened from the weather/ ' Mr. Barrow makes 

 a general remark, that " most of the small birds of 

 of Southern Africa construct their nests in such a man- 

 ner that they can be entered only by one small orifice, 

 and many suspend them from the slender extremities of 

 high branches." 



(158.) The pendulous nest of the American hang- 

 nests (Icteridce), formerly called orioles, are much of 

 the same shape as that of the Parus pendulinus. These 

 birds, however, are much larger, few of the species 

 being under the size of a thrush, and two or three, like 

 Cassicus cristatus*, twice as big. The nests are con- 

 sequently much larger, some of them measuring between 

 four and five feet. It is a most beautiful and novel 

 sight to the European to see hundreds of these pensile 

 fabrics suspended from the extremity of the branches 

 of a single treef, generally the most lofty, and accom- 

 panied by the birds themselves, either thickly crowded 

 on the branches, or going and returning in all directions : 

 the vivid yellow and black J, or black and red§ of 

 their plumage, giving a splendour to the animation of 

 the scene, which does not belong to the rookeries of 

 Europe. There can be no doubt that pendulous nests, 

 which are much more common in tropical than in tem- 

 perate latitudes, are admirably calculated to guard the 

 eggs and young, not only from the numerous snakes 

 which frequent trees, but also from the insidious arts 

 of the cuckows, or the maraudering habits of the bush 



* Birds of Brazil, vol. i. pi. 32. f Birds of Brazil, pi. 4. 



t Cassicus icteronotus, ibid., pi. S. 



§ Cassicus affinis and C. haemorrhous, ibid. i. pi. 1, 2. 



