176 JUNGLE FOLK 



taut. This comparatively heavy stone hangs by a 

 single thread. 



I have sometimes amused myself by testing the 

 strength of a strand of cobweb stretched across a path, 

 by hanging bits of match or other light material on it. 

 In one experiment a gossamer thread, thirty feet in 

 length, stretched across a road, bore the weight of 

 five blades of grass which were hung upon it. The 

 sixth blade proved to be the last straw that broke the 

 camel's back. 



The strength of cobweb is proved by the fact that 

 many of the birds that build hanging nests use it as 

 cement to attach them to the supports from which 

 they are suspended. The Indian white-eye {Zoster ops 

 palhehrosa) fixes its tiny oriole-like nest to the support- 

 ing branches, not by fibres, but by cobweb. In the 

 same way the yellow-eyed babbler (Pyctorhis sinensis), 

 whose nest is shaped like an inverted cone, attaches 

 this by cobweb to the stems of the crop in which it is 

 situated. 



The common honeysucker (Arachnechthra asiatica), 

 whose nest looks like a tangle of dried twigs and other 

 rubbish, uses much cobweb in the construction thereof. 

 The little nursery is suspended bj^ means of cobweb 

 from some projecting branch of a bush, and the various 

 materials which compose it are stuck together with 

 spider's web ; but in this case some sticky resinous 

 substance is usually used in addition to the cobweb. 



The tailor-bird {Orthotomous sutorius) always uses 

 cobweb to draw together the edges of the leaf or leaves 

 that compose its nest, Having made a series of punc- 



