HANGING NESTS. 83 



dant nests of the Merles:^ birds of tlie size of a jackdaw^ 

 brown and yellow, and mocking-birds, too, of no small ability. 

 The pouches, two feet long and more, swayed in the breeze, 

 fastened to the end of the boughs with a few threads. 

 Each had, about half-way down, an opening into the round 

 sac below, in and out of which the Merles crept and fluttered, 

 talking all the while in twenty different notes. Most tropic 

 birds hide their nests carefully in the bush : the Merles 

 hang theirs fearlessly in the most exposed situations. They 

 find, I presume, that they are protected enough from monkeys, 

 wild cats, and gato-melaos (a sort of ferret), by being hung 

 at the extremity of the bough. So thinks M. Leotaud, the 

 accomplished describer of the birds of Trinidad. But he 

 adds with good reason : " I do not, however, understand how 

 birds can protect their nestlings against ants ; for so large is 

 the number of these insects in oiu? climes, that it would seem 

 as if everything would become their prey." 



And so everything will, unless the bixd-murder be stopped. 

 Already the parasol-ants have formed a warren close to Port 

 of Spain, in what was forty years ago highly cultivated 

 ground, from w^hich they devastate at night the northern 

 gardens. The forests seem as empty of birds as the neigh- 

 bourhood of the city ; and a sad answer will soon have to be 

 given to M. L^otaud's question : 



^ Cassicus. 



g2 



