WEAVER 



WEAVER BIRD 



the object of determining the amount of water 

 that will probably be available for agricultural 

 and commercial purposes in the following 

 spring and summer. In connection with the 

 Forest Sen-ice, stations are maintained in na- 

 tional forest areas to study {he effect of for- 

 ests on stream flow and climate. 



Division of Climate and Crops. The special 

 work of this division is the preparation of re- 

 ports as to temperature, rainfall and other con- 

 ditions that affect crops. In the corn and 

 wheat regions more than a thousand bulletins 

 are issued a day, and in the cotton belt over 

 1,500 are sent out. Throughout the country 

 there are more than 4,000 cooperative meteoro- 



>tations which furnish data by which 

 the main climatic features of the respective dis- 

 tricts are established. Weekly and monthly 

 reports or bulletins and special bulletins in re- 

 gard to snow, ice, winds, etc., are valuable 

 features of this very important branch of the 

 service. 



Other Divisions. The examination and test- 

 ing of instruments; the auditing of accounts of 

 the Bureau for telephone and telegraph service, 

 and the performing of the regular routine tele- 

 graph work; the preparation and distribution 

 of the publications of the service, and the pur- 

 chase and inspection of supplies are all taken 

 care of by special divisions. 



In Canada 



The Canadian weather bureau is known offi- 

 cially as the METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE, and is a 

 division of the Department of Marine and 

 Fisheries. The observation of weather condi- 

 tions, summarizing of data, preparation of 

 weather charts and bulletins and other activi- 

 ties connected with the division are carried on 

 in about the same way as has been described 

 above. At the head of the Service is the super- 

 intendent, with headquarters at Toronto, Ont. 

 He also is director of the Toronto Magnetic 

 Observatory. Other observatories are located 

 at Saint John, N. B.; Quebec, Que.; and Vic- 

 toria, B. C. Though the Meteorological Serv- 

 ice is a division of the Marine and Fisheries 



WEAVER, we'v'r, JAMES BAIRD (1833-1912), 

 an American political leader and brigadier- 

 general in the War of Secession, was born in 

 Dayton, Ohio. He studied law and was ad- 

 mitted to the bar in 1854. At the outbreak of 

 the War of Secession he joined the Iowa volun- 

 teers, attaining the rank of brigade commander 

 of volunteers in 1865. He entered political life 

 after the war, and in 1866 was elected district 

 attorney of the second judicial district of Iowa. 

 For several years he was editor of the Iowa 

 Tribune, published in Des Moines. In 1878 

 Weaver was elected to Congress by the Green- 

 back party, and in 1880 was a candidate for the 

 Presidency of the United States on the Green- 

 back ticket. He was again nominated for the 

 same office by the People's party in 1892, and 

 received twenty-one electoral votes. From 1904 

 to 1906 he was mayor of Colfax, Iowa, having 

 removed to that city in 1895. He published 

 A Call to Action. 



Department it serves the farmer as effectively 

 as it does the shipper. B.M.W. 



Consult Abbe's Aims and Methods of State 

 Weather Services and publications of the United 

 States Weather Bureau and of the Canadian Me- 

 teorological Service. 



Related Subjects. In connection with this ar- 

 ticle the reader may refer to the following topics 

 in these volumes : 



Climate Meteorology 



Cyclone Norther 



Frost Rain 



Hail Rainbow 



Humidity Snow 



Hurricane Storms 



Isobars Tornado 



Isothermal Lines Wind 



WEAVER BIRD, a fmchlike, seed-eating 

 bird of Africa and of Oriental and Australian 

 regions, usually found in flocks so large as to 

 be a menace to growing rice and other grains. 

 It has small powers of song, but keeps up a 

 continual chirping and chattering. All species 

 are remarkable for the construction of their 

 nests. The sociable weaver birds of the in- 

 terior of South Africa build a community roof 

 of grasses, often as large as a native hut, the 

 underside of which is divided into compart- 

 ments, each occupied by a pair of birds. The 

 eggs are of a drab color, speckled with purple- 

 gray, and are three or four in number. The 

 olive and yellow weaver bird, also of South 

 Africa, weaves a globe-shaped nest of the leaves 

 of reeds, torn into strips, which it suspends 

 from the branches of trees or from rushes, with 

 the opening downward, a bar across the en- 

 trance keeping the two or three green eggs 

 from rolling out. The Java sparrow uses 



