Animal Partnerships 



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shadow of the great hawk's wings ; and the same 

 thing has been noted in the nests of the whistling 

 sea-eagle of Australia, which harbors in the 

 niches of its castle the home of a small finch, 

 the diminutive tenants getting along most ami- 

 cably with their powerful host. 



At the other extreme is the curious voluntary 

 association of birds with ants and wasps for 

 the sake of safety for their homes. Gosse tells 

 us, in his " Naturalist in Jamaica," that in that 

 island a small seed-eater called the grass-quit 

 often selects a shrub on which wasps have built 

 and fixes the entrance to its domed nest close 

 to their cells; and Prince Maximilian Neuwied 

 states, in his " Travels in Brazil," that he found 

 the curious purse-shaped nest of one of the 

 todies constantly placed near the nests of wasps, 

 and that the natives informed him that it did 

 so to secure itself against attacks by its enemies. 

 The mocking-birds in Guiana are said to do the 

 same thing to guard themselves from thievish 

 monkeys. 



Alluding to this, that excellent observer, 

 Thomas Belt, remarks that one would think it 



