TIME OF NEST BUILDING. 137 
jvhich Ican assure you pour down in good earnest in these 
equatorial regions. A few leaves are put inside where the 
egos are to be laid. 
Sometimes trees on which these industrious little fel- 
lows build are quite killed by the weight of so many 
nests, and by the space they occupy preventing the rec- 
ular growth of the branches. The nests are not only used 
to breed in, but also to live in, and each pair breeds sev- 
eral times a year, raising two young onesin abrood. Of 
course, with such a rapid increase, they are always need- 
ing new nests, so that the building process is going on 
almost all the time. ) 
The nests looked all alike to my eyes, yet each bird 
was always able to find its own. But sometimes I 
noticed a strong fellow trying with might and main to 
oust one of his weaker brethren from his home, or to 
drive him from the work he had begun; then there was 
a downright fight for possession. 
They have a foreknowledge of the rainy season evi- 
dently, for just before this sets in they are particularly 
active in building and repairing, and at such a time the 
village where they have settled is alive with their merry 
twittering and active bustle. 
Of course, during the dry or cold season very little 
building is going on. 
I shall always have a pleasant recollection of these 
Sycobi, and no one was ever allowed to disturb them 
at Washington, where I had three or four little trees 
full of their nests. The natives like to see them round 
them, and no village is thought to be perfect without 
them. 
