BIRDS IN TRAINING 23 



there is a case of one very bright bird who 

 learnt the trick simply by watching another 

 bird doing it. 



In India there is a very clever bird, the 

 baya, or weaver-finch, which seems to be 

 able to learn almost anything you could teach 

 a dog. It has been taught to fire a toy 

 cannon, to pick a leaf off a tree and bring it 

 to its master, and to twirl a stick burning at 

 each end, so as to make a ring of fire. But the 

 baya is naturally very clever, as one may 

 judge from the wonderful nest it makes; this 

 is woven of grass or palm-fibre, and hanging 

 by a sort of rope, while the entrance is under- 

 neath and lengthened out into a sort of spout 

 hanging down, up which the bird shoots, 

 while it is hard for snakes or other enemies 

 to get in, especially as the nest is always hung 

 at the end of a thin twig or the leaf of a palm. 

 I have had young weavers myself in India, and 

 two of them which got away recognized me 

 in the street after being away a day and night, 

 and came down and let me catch them, so 

 that they must learn very quickly, as I had 

 only kept them a day or two. 



But the cleverest Indian bird I ever saw 



