UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 143 



with mud ; and they line it with the softest and 

 most delicate herbage. This little cradle is 

 always raised above the highest reach of the 

 water over which it hangs ; and when they do 

 not find reeds suited to their purpose, they build 

 between the branches of a bush or shrub, but 

 always in a swampy situation. They commit 

 great depredations on the maize when it is just 

 sown, and the farmers therefore steep the seeds 

 in a decoction of hellebore, which stupefies 

 them ; but nothing can save the corn when ripe 

 from the myriads of these birds that attack it 

 then. 



Another species is called the Baltimore bird, 

 not because it frequents Baltimore, but from the 

 similarity of its colours to those in the arms of 

 the ancient Baltimore family. Its nest, which is 

 formed of tough fibres, is open at top, but with a 

 hole at the side for more conveniently feeding the 

 young ; and it is attached by vegetable threads 

 or fibres to the extreme forks of the tulip-tree 

 and the hiccory. The country-people call them 

 fire birds, because, in darting from branch to 

 branch, they look like little flashes of fire. 



22d. I have just learned from my uncle, 

 what gum lac is. I have often wished to know, but 

 1 never had sense enough to ask him till this even- 

 ing. It is a resinous substance produced by an 

 insect called the coccus lacca, and is deposited on 



