74 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 



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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 bill in 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 

 less 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, VIEILL.) first forms a 

 sort of basket framework of slender twigs, and the 

 withered flower-tops of the rosy yarrow (Achillea 

 asplcnifolia, 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. cantatrix, 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 



