204 MR. SPRUCE ON FIVE NEW PLANTS FROM EASTERN PERU. 
more or less beset with sharp conical prickles, on which account 
it is constantly selected by the sagacious Troopial (Cassicus icte- 
ronotus, Swains.) for its long pensile nests,—though, as if doubting 
that this were sufficient to render them inaccessible, it hangs 
them on the very point of the outermost twigs. All the species 
of Troopial I have seen on the Amazon and Rio Negro, show 
similar foresight in selecting a place where to rear their infant 
colonies; and the robber who, observing no impediment from 
below, ventures to climb to their eyry, finds, to his cost, that it is 
defended by some large wasps’ nest, or by hordes of stinging 
ants. 
