Birds of a Feather 



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fact that in all countries swallows have been 

 quick to attach themselves to mankind and to 

 make their homes about buildings. 



Such bird-towns or collections of nests may 

 be repeated for many years, and yet they will 

 be nothing more than so many separate homes 

 near together. There is no united community 

 almost the only advantage of the crowd being 

 that some are always on the lookout and ready 

 to alarm the rest when danger threatens. 



The same is true of the vast rookeries of 

 herons, pelicans, cormorants and many sorts of 

 sea-fowl, which cover remote cliffs, beaches and 

 islands, with as many nests or eggs as the room 

 permits. They are gregarious and friendly, but 

 not helpful to one another except in a very lim- 

 ited, accidental way. 



Little more can be said of the weaver-birds. 

 These small finches are numerous in South and 

 Central Africa, and of several sorts. All build 

 large nests of grass, lodged among the tree- 

 branches, and several are inclined to colonize, 

 placing half a dozen or so structures in a single 

 tree-top. One species goes a little further and 

 *>$ 193 $*> 



