222 The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
instinct of the small birds in choosing places for their nests. 
So many animals—monkeys, wild-cats, raccoons, opossums, 
and tree-rats—are constantly prowling about, looking out for 
eggs and young birds, that, unless placed with great care, 
their progeny would almost certainly be destroyed. The 
different species of Oropendula or Orioles (Icterzd@) of tropical 
America choose high, smooth-barked trees, standing apart 
from others, from which to hang their pendulous nests. 
Monkeys cannot get at them from the tops of other trees, and 
any predatory mammal attempting to ascend the smooth 
trunks would be greatly exposed to the attacks of the birds, 
armed, as they are, with strong sharp-pointed beaks. Several 
other birds in the forest suspend their nests from the small 
but tough air roots that hang down from the epiphytes grow- 
ing on the branches, where they often look like a natural 
bunch of moss growing on them. The various prickly bushes 
are much chosen, especially the bull’s-horn thorn, which I 
have already described. Many birds hang their nests from 
the extremities of the branches, and a safer place could hardly 
be chosen, as with the sharp thorns and the stinging ants that 
inhabit them no mammal would, I think, dare to attempt 
the ascent of the tree. Stinging ants are not the only insects 
whose assistance birds secure by building near their nests. 
A small parrot builds constantly on the plains in a hole made 
in the nests of the termites, and a species of fly-catcher makes 
its nest alongside of that of one of the wasps. On the 
savannahs, between Acoyapo and Nancital, there is a shrub 
with sharp curved prickles, called Viena paraca (come here) 
by the Spaniards, because it is difficult to extricate oneself 
from its hold when the dress is caught, for 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. dis- 
turbed 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 
