204 CONVERSATIONS ON 



that they wet the hairs, so as to make them 

 bend. But there are much better weavers 

 than the common sparrow. The red-breast 

 and the yellow-hammer are both better work- 

 men." 



" Where do they get hairs. Uncle Philip ?" 



" They find bunches of them sticking in 

 the cracks of a fence or post where a horse or 

 cow has been rubbing ; and some of these little 

 creatures, when they find such a bunch, will 

 pull it to pieces, and work it in, hair by hair." 



" Are there many of these weaver-birds, 

 Uncle Philip ?" 



" Yes, boys, a great many : our country is 

 quite full of them. There is the mountain 

 ant-catcher,* which will weave a nest of dry 

 grass, and wind the blades round the branches 

 of a tree ; and the king-bird,t which first 

 makes a basket frame-work of slender sticks, 

 and afterward weaves in wool and tow, and 

 lines it with hairs and dry grass. There is 

 another, too, the white-eyed fly-catcher, which 

 some have called the politician. This bird 

 builds its nest arid hangs it up by the upper 

 edge of the two sides on a vine. The outside 

 is made of pieces of rotten wood, threads of 



* Myiothera obsoleta of Bonaparte. f Tyrannus intrepidus. 



