NATURE'S CEMENT 



and are attached to it at a convenient height, that is to say, 

 at about a foot or a foot and a half above the water ; not 

 too near the surface, but not too high up either, because 

 there the stems would be so flexible that they would bend 

 under the weight of a nest. 



Having at length found three or four convenient reeds, 

 the bird proceeds to make the framework and lay the founda- 

 tion of its nest ; it has no scaffolding to stand on not even 

 a twig so it is obliged to maintain itself in an upright 

 position on one slender, swaying stem whilst carrying out 

 this very important task. However, in spite of all difficulties, 

 the little workman labours most industriously. He looks 

 about amongst the rushes and reeds and sedges for withered 

 leaves which are about a foot in length and not too stiff; he 

 moistens them and puts them together so that they form 

 a fairly stout thong, and places it in the fork of a leaf. 

 Then he gives it a twist round the stem of the reed, then 

 round the next one, and so on, doing the same with other 

 pieces of dried grass, all in the most careful fashion, until at 

 length the reed stems are connected with one another just 

 as you might tie them with a piece of string or gardener's 



Working in this manner from below upwards, he at length 

 succeeds in weaving the walls of his nest, very much as a 

 basket-maker plaits a basket. 



It sometimes happens that a reed is not forked in a place 

 quite convenient for his purpose ; then the bird moistens 

 pieces of dried grass with his saliva, and when these are 

 rolled round the stem they adhere quite firmly. By the 

 same means he sticks to the framework of the walls, and 

 especially to the bottom of the nest, fragments of broad 

 grasses, leaves, and so on, which he plasters well over. After 

 this, to make all comfortable, he adds a lining of the finest 



80 



