﻿PENDULOUS NESTS. 



187 



(160.) There is a third sort of pendulous nest, which 

 is more remarkable in its construction than either those 

 of the titmice or the cassicans ; but it seems to be con- 

 structed by very few birds only. It is composed of 

 two or three leaves, of a long and broad shape, which 

 the bird artfully unites together, and constructs the real 

 nest within : the leaves, by this additional weight, of 

 course become pendant, and hang by their natural stalks. 

 Much obscurity hangs over the true affinities of the 

 celebrated little bird which builds this nest ; which is 

 the Sylvia sutoria, or tailor warbler of the ofd writers. 

 As we have never yet been able to examine a specimen 

 either of the bird or its habitation, the reader must be 

 contented with the following account given by Dr. 

 Latham * : — " This bird is chiefly remarkable for the 

 nest, which is curiously constructed, being composed of 

 two leaves, one of them dead : the latter is fixed to the 

 living one, as it hangs on the tree, by sewing both 

 together in the manner of a pouch or purse ; it is 

 open at top, and the cavity filled with fine down, and 

 being suspended from the branch, the birds are secure 

 from the depredations of snakes and monkeys, to which 

 they might otherwise fall a prey. In my own collec- 

 tion, ,, continues our author, "is a nest of an equally 

 singular construction ; it is composed of a single large 

 leaf, of a fibrous, rough texture, about six inches long, 

 independent of the stalk, five inches and a half in 

 breadth, and ending in a point: the sides of this leaf 

 are drawn together, so as to meet within three quarters 

 of an inch : within this is the nest, which is about four 

 inches deep, and two broad, opening at the top, and the 

 bottom of the leaf is drawn upwards, to assist in the 

 support of it. This inward nest is composed of white 

 down, with here and there a feather, with a small por- 

 tion of white down intermixed ; the stalk about five 

 inches long. This was brought from China. Among 

 the drawings of sir J. Anstruther, is not only a drawing 

 of this nest, but another of an equally curious fabrica- 



* General History, vol. vii. p. 79. 



