THE WEAVER BIRD 185 



weaver is sometimes known as the bottle bird ; I have 

 also heard it called the hedge sparrow. 



It makes no attempt to conceal its exquisitely woven 

 nest. It relies for protection on inaccessibility, not 

 concealment. Every animal badmash can see the nest, 

 but cannot get at it. It hangs sufficiently high to be 

 out of reach of all four-footed creatures. The ends of 

 the entrance passage are frayed out so as to baffle all 

 attempts on the part of squirrels and lizards to reach 

 the treasures hidden away in it. 



Both cock and hen work at the nest, the cock being 

 the more industrious. The fibres of which it is com- 

 posed are not found ready-made. The birds manufac- 

 ture them out of the tall elephant grass which is so 

 common in India. The weaver alights on one of the 

 nearly upright blades and seizes with its beak a neigh- 

 bouring blade near the base and makes a notch in it ; it 

 next seizes the edge of the blade above the notch and 

 jerks its head away. By this means it strips off a thin 

 strand of the leaf; it then proceeds to tear off in a 

 similar manner a second strand, retaining the first one 

 in its beak ; in precisely the same way a third and per- 

 haps a fourth strand are stripped off. The tearing 

 process is not always continued to the extreme end of 

 the blade ; the various strands sometimes remain at- 

 tached to the tip of the blade. The force with which 

 the bird flies away usually suffices to complete the 

 severance ; sometimes, however, it is not effected so 

 easily, and the bird is pulled back and swings in the 

 air suspended by the strands it holds in its bill. 

 Nothing daunted, the weaver makes a second attempt 



