64 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



sites, a down-hanging elm-tree branch that is swayed to and 

 fro by every passing breeze. The situation is so "impossible" 

 that thus far no moving picture artist has ever caught and 

 recorded the process. 



Take in your hand a standard oriole nest, and examine it 

 thoroughly. First you will note that it is very strong, and 

 thoroughly durable. It can stand the lashings of the fiercest 

 gales that visit our storm-beaten shore. 



How long would it take a man to unravel that nest, wisp 

 by wisp, and resolve it into a loose pile of materials? Certainly 

 not less than an entire day. Do you think that even your 

 skilful fingers, unassisted by needles, could in two days, or 

 in three, weave of those same materials a nest like that, that 

 would function as did the original? I doubt it. The materials 

 consist of long strips of the thin inner bark of trees, short 

 strings, and tiny grass stems that are long, pliable and tough. 

 Who taught the oriole how to find and to weave those rare and 

 hard-to-find materials? And how did it manage all that 

 weaving with its beak only? Let the wise ones answer, if they 

 can; for I confess that I can not! 



Down in Venezuela, in the delta of the Orinoco River, 

 and elsewhere, lives a black and yellow bird called the giant 

 cacique (pronounced cay-seek'), which as a nest-builder far 

 surpasses our oriole. Often the cacique's hanging nest is from 

 four to six feet long. The oriole builds to escape the red 

 squirrels, but the cacique has to reckon with the prehensile- 

 tailed monkeys. 



Sometimes a dozen caciques will hang their nests hi close 

 proximity to a wasps' nest, as if for additional protection. 

 A cacique's nest hangs like a grass rope, with a commodious 

 purse at its lower end, entered by a narrow perpendicular slit 

 a foot or so above the terminal facilities. It is impossible to 

 achieve one of these nests without either shooting off the limb 

 to which it hangs, or felling the tree. If it hangs low enough 

 a charge of coarse shot usually will cut the limb, but if high, 



