THE LONG-BIXLED SPIDER-HUNTER 
spicuotis places. 'I hey like rather tlie quieter spots and large 
trees but this and another species are by no means rare in the 
Botanic Gardens. 
Field Notes: — The very long curved bill at once distin- 
guishes the 3[)idef -hunters from other local birds. The present 
species bemg pale yellow beneath should not be confused with 
the other kind which occurs (and breeds) in the Botanic Gar- 
dens. This SL'Cond kind has a dark greyish breast and at a 
short distance looks uniformly dark. It may be known as 
the jjrey-breasted spider-hunter {Arachfiothera a^itis modesta). 
Ridley states that modcsta haunts the large-leaved gingers and 
Heliconias in the Gardens. 
Other habits: — The food consists to a great extent of 
insects and spiders for which the bird diligently searches> 
prying here and there in nooks and crannies, in the creases of 
the bark of trees and in flowers. The late R. Shelford has 
fuihlished an admirable account of the nest : *'The nest is 
attached to the under surface of a larj^e leaf, and at first 
ftif^ht appears to be composed entirely of skeleton leaves, but 
a closer examination shows that these are merely the covering^ 
of the nest proper, which is a hemispherical cup of inter-woven 
fibres, apparently the mid-ribs of leaves; it Is slung by silken 
threads to the leaf which supports it, there beinj^; a space of 
less than an inch between the rim of the nest and the under 
<?urface of the leaf» just room enough to let the bird creep in. 
These suspensory threads, which are taken from a spider's 
web, are passed through holes made in the leaf by the bird's 
bill and the ends twisted up into knots to prevent slipping. 
The nest proper is covered over with skeleton leaves the 
covering extending much beyond the confines of the nest, so 
that the whole structure appears to be a rouglily oval mass. 
These skeleton leaves are also secured by transverse lashings 
of spider silk passing through the supporting leaf and knotted 
at each end. At one end and at the sides of the structure the 
skeleton leaves are lashed down tightly, but at the other end 
their attachment is looser, and this marks the entrance to the 
nest, the mother-bird here creeps under the protective covering 
of skeleton leaves and so into the nest proper. On the upper 
