The small grey lichens with which it is covered all over form 
so close an incrustation with the branches of the tree from which 
it is suspended as effectually to conceal the numerous eggs it 
contains, for this little creature lays and hatches as many 
as sixteen eggs. The aperture is round, and only an inch 
and a quarter in diameter, with an inch and a half of dome 
above the opening. The outer shell of the nest is an inch and 
a half thick ; its inner surface is stuck all over with feathers, 
being not only lined but nearly filled with similar materials ; 
one nest, described in some MS. notes of the lamented Mr. Mac- 
gillivray, now before us, containing no less than six hundred 
and eighty-nine feathers, three-fourths of them large ones, 
being those of the domestic fowl, pheasants, turkeys, rooks, 
and other birds. 
But the most artistic specimens of nest-building among 
British birds are greatly exceeded by some of the tropical 
birds. The nest of the tailor-bird of Africa and Asia, so 
called from the skill with which the nest is constructed, is 
sewn together by the long fibrous filaments of various plants ; 
the materials being selected with a wonderful degree of intelli- 
gence. In form it is not unlike the bottle-tit’s nest, but infinitely 
more elaborate. Even this edifice is far exceeded by that of 
some of the toucans of the Philippine Islands, whose nest, 
suspended at the extremity of the most slender and flexible 
branches, and beyond the reach of any beast of prey, consists 
■of a series of chambers, one built above the other, with an 
-entrance from below; the same nest being used by several 
pairs of birds, all of whom have either laboured simulta- 
neously at its construction or added to it subsequently. 
The pensile grosbeak, another of these gregarious African 
birds, makes a basket-nest of straw and reeds, interwoven into 
the shape of a bag, with the entrance below, the top being 
fastened generally on trees that grow on the borders of 
streams, or on those which impend over precipices. On one 
side of this hanging edifice is the true nest. The bird does 
not build a distinct nest every year, but fastens its new basket 
lo the lower end of the old one — a very singular arrangement. 
The object in choosing this position over a precipice or stream 
for the nest is obviously to secure their offspring from the 
assaults of their numerous enemies, particularly the serpent 
race. To increase the difficulty of access to these tree-rocked 
cradles, the entrance is always from below, and frequently 
through a cylindrical passage, of twelve or fifteen inches in 
295 
