188 
ON THE CLASSIFICATION OP BIRDS. 
tioii. It appears to be composed of several leaves, like 
those of some kind of hazel, and an inner nest, formed 
of dry bents, fibres, and hairs, suspended from a tree 
by the main leaf, to which the others are fastened. In 
this are figured two young birds, but with hills stouter 
than in the warbler genus, the colour of them being 
rufous above and white beneath. By the side of the 
nest are painted two ferruginous or rufous coloured 
eggs. The name in (on) the drawing (is) Baya.”* 
These notices are interesting as far as they go, but on 
the most curious part of their structure (particularly of 
that which is in the writer’s possession) they are alto- 
gether silent. By what process were these leaves “ drawn 
together Were they actually sewed, as some authors 
assert.? — were they interlaced .? — or ivere they fastened 
by any resinous substance ? This point, which regards 
the most interesting part of the fabric, is altogether 
passed over. By what species, or even genera, these 
nests were constructed, must be left to future discovery. 
We strongly suspect these curious foliculated nests are 
made by many oriental birds. We have been also 
assured, by an officer who had passed several years in 
India, and had paid much attention to its natural his- 
tory, that the greatest part of the sunbirds (Cinnyrh) 
of that continent build their nests much in the same 
manner as those we have just described. 
(16T.) There is still another sort of suspended nests, 
mentioned by Barrow t, as fabricated by a species of 
Loxm, or grosbeak (probably of tbe modern genus 
Evplectes), which, unluckily, he neither describes or 
names. It seems always to build on a branch extend- 
mg over a river or pool of water. The nest is shaped 
exactly like a chemist s retort ; is suspended from the 
head; and the shank, of eight or nine inches long, at ' 
the bottom of which is the aperture, almost touches the 
water. It is made of green grass, firmly put together, 
and curiously woven. 
j * name Isgivpn to the ^’hillppine grosbeak • butthenost offhai i‘« 
bottle, and made of grass! 
qu te different trom the Baya here described.” —Lat/tam 
+ Travels in Africa, 4to, p. 323. 
