CURIO US NES TS IN AFRICA. 215 



employed the wool. He next provided them with cotton, 

 which they immediately collected ; the third day he supplied 

 them with down, on which they forsook both the others, and 

 finished their work with it. 



It is surprising, too, with what rapidity, in cases of emer- 

 gency, these small birds can build a nest. A Canary was 

 observed to commence her labours about five o'clock in the 

 morning, from which time till near seven she worked so hard, 

 that it was completely finished j she had often been disturbed 

 before, in consequence of building in inconvenient places, 

 which probably induced her to use more than ordinary despatch 

 in this nest, availing herself of early hours, before people were 

 likely to see and interfere. 



An African traveller speaks of some singular nests built by 

 birds, which he describes as resembling our Goldfinch ; but 

 he probably mistook them for a family of birds nearly allied 

 to them, and known to inhabit the Cape of Good Hope, the 

 birds being doubtless Sociable Grosbeaks. For although Bishop 

 Heber found Goldfinches' 1 ' at the foot of the Snowy Mountains 

 in India, and in some other parts where they are caught and 

 sold for about two shillings each, we are not aware that they 

 are known in Africa. The account of the nest, however, is 

 very curious, and, at all events, illustrates the social manners 

 of a set of little birds like "brethren dwelling together in 

 unity." " A tree at a little distance from our waggon," says the 

 traveller who noticed the fact,f "had two remarkable nests in 

 it. The one was about four yards in circumference, and the 

 other three, and about a yard in depth. They were built of 

 coarse grass. One of these nests had seventeen holes in the 

 bottom, by which the birds enter ; the other had seven. At 

 one time I saw about a hundred birds come out of them. 

 Instead of being the nest of a single pair of birds, they seemed 

 to be towns of birds, or the property of a single pair, in which 

 they accommodate all their descendants. A Horned Owl had 

 taken possession of the outside of the roof of the largest for a 



* The Goldfinch of the East Indies is the Carduelis carriceps, a bird 

 much resembling, but not exactly the same as our British species. 

 t Campbell's Travels in Africa 



