THE SYCOBIUS NIGERRIMUS. 135. 
back of the huts, and not far from where the palm or 
plantain trees abound ; but man must be in sight, for they 
seem to love his society. / 
In some villages they are found in immense numbers, 
often there are several hundreds of nests on the same tree, 
but it depends on the size of the tree. I have seen sev- 
eral thousands of nests on a single tree, of which they take 
entire possession for years. The Sycobi are a little lar- 
ger than sparrows, and the habits of these little twitter- 
ers are so remarkable that I never wearied of watching 
their curious ways, and very skillful and intelligent ma- 
noeuvres in nest-building or in gathering food. A native 
village would lose a great charm without them. In many 
villages of the interior, where people do not move about, 
trees are planted specially for them, and it is considered 
anillomenif they donotcome. They make such a noise 
from morning till night that sometimes it is almost im- 
possible to hear when close to them; the harder at work 
they are the more noise they make. 
There are two species, but both live in the same trees 
and associate indiscriminately with each. other, though 
not, of course, in the same nests. The male of one species 
is entirely black, and the female a dark gray, while in the 
other the male is yellow, with black and yellow throat. 
The eggs of the first mentioned are bluish, with black 
spots, while those of the other species are light pink, with 
dark spots. Both kinds of eggs are very beautiful. 
They are singularly industrious birds: they seem never 
to weary of work. When they have settled upon a tree 
on which to plant a colony, they labor from daylight till 
dark, day after day, with seemingly the utmost joy, fun, 
and perseverance at their very singular pendent nests. 
