290 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [CIi. XV. 



in the tropics, to notice the great sagacity or instinct of 

 the small birds in choosing places for their nests. So 

 many animals : monkeys, wild- cats, racoons, opossums, 

 and tree-rats, are constantly prowling about, looking out 

 for eggs and young birds, that, unless placed with great 

 care, their progeny would almost certainly be destroyed. 

 The different species of Oropendula or Orioles (Icteridce) 

 of tropical America choose high, smooth-barked trees, 

 standing apart from others, from which to hang their 

 pendulous nests. Monkeys cannot get at them from the 

 tops of other trees, and any predatory mammal attempt- 

 ing to ascend the smooth trunks would be greatly 

 exposed to the attacks of the birds armed, as they are, 

 with strong sharp-pointed beaks. Several other birds in 

 the forest suspend their nests from the small but tough 

 air roots that hang down from the epiphytes growing on 

 the branches, where they often look like a natural bunch 

 of moss growing on them. The various prickly bushes 

 are much chosen, especially the bull's-horn thorn, which 

 I have already described. Many birds hang their nests 

 from the extremities of the branches, and a safer place 

 could hardly be chosen, as with the sharp thorns and the 

 stinging ants that inhabit them no mammal would, I 



o O ' 



think, dare to attempt the ascent of the tree. Stinging 

 ants are not the only insects whose protection birds 

 secure by building near their nests. A small parrot 

 builds constantly on the plains in a hole made in the 

 nests of the termites, and a species of fly- catcher makes 

 its nest alongside of that of one of the wasps. On the 

 savannahs, between Acoyapo and Nancital, there is a 

 shrub with sharp curved prickles, called Viena paraca 

 (come here) by the Spaniards, because it is difficult to 



