SOME STRANGE NESTS 175 



No one, to look at this little delicate bird, 

 smaller than a sparrow, with such a tiny bill 

 and feet so small also, could imagine that it 

 could drive a tunnel a couple of yards deep 

 into a sand-bank, or that it would take all 

 this trouble simply to make a simple little bed 

 of a nest in the chamber at the end. It seems 

 such a lot of work compared to what the 

 swallow and house-martin undertake with 

 their mud masonry ; and yet perhaps the sand- 

 martin is the wisest of the three, for there 

 is another wonderful point about it it is 

 the most widely-spread of all our small birds. 

 It is as well known in America, where it is 

 called the bank-swallow, as it is in Europe and 

 Asia, and goes as far south as Brazil in winter. 

 But the feats of the wren and sand-martin 

 are more a matter of perseverance than re- 

 markable skill ; the hanging nests of the gold- 

 crest and the golden oriole are cleverer per- 

 formances, and these are nothing compared 

 to the wonderful nests which are made by the 

 weaver-birds which are so common in Africa 

 and India. Fortunately, weaver-birds, being 

 finches, are easy to keep, and are always to 

 be seen at the Zoo and in many private 



