294 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



lectedfrom the egg-pouches, which is stitched through holes 

 made in the edges of leaves, presumably with the beak. 



The baya bird of India ' hangs its pendulous dwelling 

 from a projecting bough, twisting it with grass into a form 

 somewhat resembling a bottle with a prolonged neck, the 

 entrance being inverted, so as to baffle the approaches of 

 its enemies, the tree snakes and other reptiles.' 



Sir E. Tennent, from whom this account is taken, 

 adds : 



The natives assert that the male bird carries fire-flies to the 

 nest, and fastens them to its sides by particles of soft mud. Mr. 

 Layard assures me that although he has never succeeded in 

 finding the fire-fly, the nest of the male bird (for the female 

 occupies another during incubation) invariably contains a patch 

 of mud on each side of the perch. 



Dr. Buchanan confirms the report of the natives here 

 alluded to, and says : 



At night each of the habitations is lighted up by a fire-fly 

 stuck on the top with a bit of clay. The nest consists of two 

 rooms; sometimes there are three or four fire-flies, and their 

 blaze in the little cells dazzles the eyes of the bats, which often 

 kill the young of these birds.. 



While this work is passing through the press I meet 

 with the following, which appears to refer to some inde- 

 pendent, and therefore corroborative observation concern- 

 ing the above-stated fact, and in any case is worth adding, 

 on account of the observation concerning the rats, which, 

 if trustworthy, would furnish a sufficient reason for the 

 instinct of the birds. The extract is taken from a letter to 

 ' Nature ' (xxiv., p. 165), published by Mr. H. A. Severn : 



I have been informed on safe authority that the Indian 

 bottle-bird protects his nest at night by sticking several of these 

 glow-beetles around the entrance by means of clay ; and only a 

 few days back an intimate friend of my own was watching three 

 rats on a roof rafter of his bungalow when a glow-fly lodged 

 very close to them ; the rats immediately scampered off. 



TheTalegallus of Australia is, in the opinion of Gould, 



Among the most important of the ornithological novelties 

 which the exploration of Western and Southern Australia has 



