72 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 



irregular sloping roof, and all the eaves of which are 

 completely covered with nests, crowded one against 

 another, and you will have a tolerable accurate idea 

 of these singular edifices. 



" Each individual nest is three or four inches in 

 diameter, which is sufficient for the bird. But as 

 they are all in contact with one another around the 

 eaves, they appear to the eye to form but one build- 

 ing, and are distinguishable from each other only by 

 a little external aperture, which serves as an entrance 

 to the nest ; and even this is sometimes common to 

 three different nests, one of which is situated at the 

 bottom, and the other two at the sides. According 

 to Paterson, the number of cells increasing in pro- 

 portion to the increase of inhabitants, the old ones 

 become ' streets of communication, formed by line 

 and level.' "* 



CHAPTER VII. 



WEAVER AND TAILOR BIRDS. 



THE captain of a ship, who had collected about 

 forty birds from Madagascar, Senegal, and other 

 parts of the African coast, brought to France two 

 of the weaver orioles (Ploceus textor, CUVIER), 

 which he called Senegal chaffinches, and which are 

 the only individuals we believe hitherto described 

 by naturalists. They appeared to be of different 

 ages, the elder having a kind of crown, which ap- 

 peared in sunlight of a glossy golden-brown col- 

 our; but at the autumnal moult this disappeared, 

 leaving the head of a yellow colour, though its 

 golden brown was always renewed in the spring of 

 * Vaillant's Trav., 2d series, vol. iii. 



