264 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



The nest of the Crested Cassique is of great length, and, as may 

 be seen by the illustration, has the entrance like that of a pocket. 

 The opening is rather small when compared with the size of the 

 nest itself, and the bird always dives head foremost into its home, 

 its yellow tail flashing a last golden gleam before it disappears. 

 The nest is strongly built, and the materials are rather coarse, not 

 in the least resembling the delicate and neatly-rounded fibres of 

 which many of the weaver nests are made. These nests often 

 exceed a yard in length, and, owing to their great size, are very 

 conspicuous, as the wind sways them backward and forward from 

 the bough. 



The same may be said respecting the nests of other Cassiques, 

 and the stay-at-home reader is often apt to wonder why the trav- 

 eler does not ascend every tree on which he sees a nest, and bring 

 it down. There are two reasons why such nests are not so com- 

 mon in European museums as their number would seem to prom- 

 ise. One reason is, that the trees are not easily climbed. Some 

 of them run to a height of eighty or a hundred feet without a 

 bough ; others have stems of great girth and wondrous smooth- 

 ness, so that to ascend them is as difficult as to climb a greased 

 pole at a fair; others again, which do not appear to present any 

 difficulties, have their stems beset with thorny spikes, from an 

 inch to two inches in length, as strong as nails and as sharp as 

 needles. 



Supposing, however, that the traveler is a practiced climber, 

 and always carries with him a rope and climbing spurs, and that 

 by dint of the pointed spurs sticking into the tree, and the strong 

 leather gaiters repelling the thorns, and the rope enabling him to 

 pull himself upward, he has arrived at the branches, he still finds 

 many an obstacle to overcome. In the first place, distances are 

 mightily deceptive when viewed from below, and a nest which 

 appears from the ground to be close to a certain branch, is found 

 really to be some yards on one side, and as many above. 



Most birds, especially the tropical birds, have a custom of pla- 

 cing their nests at the very ends of boughs, where the twigs could 

 not sustain the weight of a monkey, much less that of a man, so 

 "that the adventurous climber finds himself scarcely nearer his ob- 

 ject than when he stood upon the ground. Such nests can only 

 be obtained by skillfully throwing a rope around the branch to 

 which they are hung, drawing it up, severing it as near the nests 

 as possible, and then lowering the whole to the earth. 



