74 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 
the manner just described, with no other instrument 
than its bill; for it does not appear that the feet are 
brought into use in the work. In every species of 
weaving practised by our mechanics, the cross 
thread or weft is passed between the warp or straight 
threads by means of a shuttle which goes complete- 
ly through; but it is very obvious that a bird could 
not use its billin this manner, much less its entire 
body, which, in all known instances of weaver-birds, 
is much too bulky for this purpose. We need not, 
however, go to Senegal for specimens of the art of 
weaving among birds. There are few of those who 
build their nests with any degree of neatness, that 
‘do not, in some part of the structure, exhibit more or 
Jess of this peculiar skill. Even those which make 
very slender nests are sometimes most solicitous to 
interweave their materials. 
Take any of the nests of the common small birds, 
which line the interior with hair, and remove the 
outer basketing of hay or roots, or the feltwork of 
moss and wool, and there will remain a circular 
piece of haircloth of various workmanship, accord- 
ing to the ingenuity of the bird and the materials 
which it has been able to procure. The American 
kingbird (Tyrannus intrepidus, Viriuu.) first forms a 
sort of basket framework of slender twigs, and the 
withered flower-tops of the rosy yarrow (Achillea 
asplenifolia, Pers.) and other plants, which are 
afterward woven together with wool and tow, and 
lined with interweavings of hair and dry fibrous 
grass. A bird of the same family, the white-eyed 
fly-catcher {(M. cantatriz, Bartram), constructs a 
neat conical hanging nest, “‘ suspended,” says Wil- 
son, “by the upper edge of the two sides, on the 
circular bend of a prickly vine, a species of smilax 
that generally grows in low thickets. Outwardly 
it is constructed of various light materials, bits of 
rotten wood, fibres of dry stalks of weeds, pieces 
of papers, commonly newspapers, an article almost 
