CHAPTER XXII. 



THE WEAVER BIRDS. 



AFTER the Mynas come the Fringillidas, or Finches, 



the little seed-eating- 

 birds which form so 

 large a proportion of 

 our cage pets. Jerdon 

 divides them into several 

 [families, among which 

 he gives the first place to the Weaver Birds. There 

 are several species in India, but we know only 

 one, Ploceus baya^ the Weaver Bird par excellence 

 and the head of the clan. And we know it by 

 its works : of itself few of us know much ; most 

 of us nothing. It is like Cheops, whose pyramid 

 we gape at. Yet it were surely worth while to learn 

 something of the marvellous little workman who 

 weaves champagne bottles of grass and hangs them 

 upside down on the trees so securely that two monsoons 

 will not wash them away. That workman is a com. 



