568 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



preserve the balance. To the twigs it is firmly bound with the 

 strong flaxen fibres of which the walls are formed, and its lining 

 is made of fine grasses. 



In Southern Africa there is a small, simply colored, but inter- 

 esting bird, called by Le Vaillant the Capocter (Drymoica macu- 

 losa), because it builds in a cotton-yielding tree, called by the Dutch 

 colonist Capoc-bosche. 



The attention of that naturalist was directed to the bird in the 

 following manner. 



Being, in common with all true naturalists, a lover of birds in 

 their living state, and being in no wise disposed to kill them 

 without necessity, he had contrived to tame a pair of little brown 

 birds, which at last became so familiar that they would enter his 

 tent. On these terms they remained until the beginning of the 

 breeding season, when they began to come less regularly, and 

 then to absent themselves for several successive days. About 

 this time they became thieves. M. Le Vaillant was accustomed 

 to keep on his table a quantity of tow and cotton wool, which he 

 used in stuffing and otherwise preparing the skins which he had 

 procured for his collection. The birds seemed suddenly to take 

 a wonderful fancy to the tow and cotton wool, and were continu- 

 ally flying off with them, sometimes stealing a piece that was 

 nearly as large as both the birds together. 



Struck with this sudden fancy of the birds, Le Vaillant de- 

 termined to watch them, and soon traced them to a capoc-bosche- 

 tree which grew at some distance, and in a remarkably retired 

 spot. Among the branches of this tree they had already begun 

 their nest, which consisted of a quantity of moss pressed tightly 

 into the forks of a bough, and which was at the time only in a 

 rudimentary condition. The moss, in fact, was the foundation of 

 the nest, upon which the beautiful walls were intended to be 

 built, just as in the habitation of many other birds there is a 

 foundation of substances more solid than the materials of which 

 the walls are made. 



Into this nest the Capociers were weaving the stolen stores of 

 cotton wool, working it in a manner that will be presently de- 

 scribed. Le Vaillant soon 'discovered that the legitimate sub- 

 stance of the nest- walls was the soft white down produced by 

 certain plants, and that the birds used an enormous amount of 

 materials in comparison with their own size. As, however, they 



