262 



THE COMMUNITIES OF BIRDS. 



He chooses a bamboo growing close to the water. To the branches 

 of this tree he deHcately suspends some vegetable fibres. He knows 

 beforehand the weight of the nest, and never eiTS. To the threads 

 he attaches, one by one (not supporting himself on anything, but 

 working in the air) some sufficiently strong grasses. The task is 

 long and fatiguing ; it presupposes an infinite amount of patient 

 courage. 



The vestibule alone is nothing less than a cylinder of twelve to 

 fifteen feet, which hangs over the water, the opening being below, so 

 that one enters it ascending. The upper extremity may be compared 

 to a srourd or an inflated ba!.,' like a chemist's retort. Sometimes five 

 o)- six hundred nests of this kind hang to a single tree. 



Such is my city of the air ; not a dream and a phantasy, like that 

 of Aristophanes, but actual, realized, and answering the three condi- 

 tions : security both on the side of land and water, and inaccessibility 

 to the robbers of the air through its narrow openings, where one can 

 only enter Ijy ascending with gi-eat difficulty. 



Now, that which was said to Columbus when he defied his guests 

 to make an egg stand upright, you perhaps will say to the ingenious 

 bird in reference to his suspended city. You will observe, " It was 

 very simple." To which the bird will reply, like Columbus, " Why did 

 you not discover it?" 



