CLASS AVES: ORDER PASSERES. 



123 



eluding the hunter, seeming to detect at a glance the differ- 

 Ft.g. 203. ence between a person going quietly 



about his business and one " on mis- 

 chief bent." 



The Blue Jay's pleasing plumage is 

 in startling contrast with the harsh 

 notes of its ordinary song. Though 

 irritable and quarrelsome, it has been 

 tamed and taught to pronounce cer- 

 tain words. It is of great service in 

 planting the seeds of forest trees and 

 in devouring, during the winter sea- 

 son, the eggs of the destructive tent- 

 caterpillar. 



Ploceidse. The Weaver-birds are 



cyanura cristata, Blue Jay. j. found only in India and Africa, and 



are named from the inimitable construction of their nests. 



Some are pendent from the twigs of tall trees overhanging a 



stream, and are shaped like an inverted bottle or chemical 



retort, with a long tube 



for the entrance, made of 



fibres so loosely put to- 

 gether that a reptile 



would drop off into the 



water. Others similarly 



suspended are pyramidal 



in shape and divided into 



two chambers the outer, 



perhaps, for the use of 



the male and the inner 



for the eggs. 



The Sociable Weaver- 



Fig. 



Nest of Sociable Weaver-bird. 



Urd is polygamous. A colony of two or three hundred con- 

 having its throat-feathers oval and close ; while those of the raven are sharp and 

 scattered. The fiook (C. frugilegus), so familiar to every European traveler and 

 which congregates in flocks about churches and old ruins, does not eat carrion. The 

 fondness of the raven for such food explains why the one sent from the Ark by 

 Noah returned no more to him. 



