THE FIERY TOPAZ. 
35i 
3 — — ; 
coarse buff leather, and was so similar in hue to the branches 
that surrounded it, that it seemed more like a natural excres- 
cence than a bird’s nest. The reason for this similitude was 
simple enough. It was made of a natural excrescence, and 
therefore resembled one. 
When the Fiery Topaz wishes to build a nest, it goes off to 
the trees, and searches for a kind of fungus belonging to the 
FIERY TOPAZ AND HERMIT. 
genus boletus, and with this singular material it makes its home. 
It is tough, leathery, thick and soft, and in some curious manner 
the bird contrives to mould the apparently intractable substance 
into the shape which is represented in the illustration. The 
non-botanical reader may form an idea of the appearance of 
