Ch. XV.] SITES FOR BIRDS'-XESTS, 291 



extricate oneself from its hold when the dress is caught : 

 as one part is cleared another will be entangled. A 

 yellow and brown fly-catcher builds its nest in these 

 bushes, and generally places it alongside that of a 

 banded wasp, so that with the prickles and the wasps it 

 is well guarded. I witnessed, however, the death of one 

 of the birds from the very means it had chosen for the 

 protection of its young. Darting hurriedly out of its 

 domed nest as we were passing, it was caught just 

 under its bill by one of the curved hook-like thorns, and 

 in trying to extricate itself got further entangled. Its 

 fluttering disturbed the wasps, who flew down upon it, 

 and in less than a minute stung it to death. We tried 

 in vain to rescue it, for the wasps attacked us also, and 

 one of our party was severely stung by them. We had 

 to leave it hanging up dead in front of its nest, whilst its 

 mate flew round and round screaming out terror and 

 distress. I find that other travellers have noted the fact 

 of birds building their nests near colonies of wasps for 

 protection. Thus, according to Gosse, the grassquit 

 of Jamaica (Spermophila olimcea) often selects a shrub 

 on which wasps have built, and fixes the entrance to its 

 domed nest close to their cells ; and Prince Maximilian 

 Neuwied states in his " Travels in Brazil," that he found 

 the curious purse-shaped nest of one of the Todies con- 

 stantly placed near the nests of wasps, and that the 

 natives informed him that it did so to secure itself from 

 the attacks of its enemies. I should have thought that 

 when building their nests they would be very liable to 

 be attacked by the wasps. The nests placed in these 

 positions appear always to be domed, probably for secu- 

 rity against their unstable friends. 



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