202 HISTORY OF 



of those immense trees is seen the most various, 

 and the most inimical assemblage of creatures 

 that can be imagined. The top is inhabited by 

 monkeys of some particular tribe, that drive off 

 all others ; lower down twine about the great 

 trunk numbers of the larger snakes, patiently 

 waiting till some unwary animal comes within the 

 sphere of their activity ; and at the edges of the 

 tree hang these artificial nests, in great abun- 

 dance, inhabited by birds of the most delightful 

 plumage. 



The nest is usually formed in this manner: 

 When the time of incubation approaches, they fly 

 busily about, in quest of a kind of moss, called 

 by the English inhabitants of those countries 

 old ma?i's beard. It is a fibrous substance, and 

 not very unlike hair, which bears being moulded 

 into any form, and suffers being glued together. 

 This, therefore, the little woodpecker, called by 

 the natives of Brasil the Guiratemga, first glues 

 by some viscous substance, gathered in the forest, 

 to the extremest branch of a tree ; then building 

 downward, and still adding fresh materials to 

 those already procured, a nest is formed that de- 

 pends, like a pouch, from the point of the branch ; 

 the hole to enter at is on the side ; and all the 

 interior parts are lined with the finer fibres of the 

 same substances which compose the whole. 



Such is the general contrivance of these hang- 

 ing nests, which are made by some other birds 

 with still superior art. A little bird of the Gros- 

 beak kind, in the Philippine Islands, makes its 

 nest in such a manner that there is no opening 



