PENDULOUS NESTS 267 



reviewers when placed before an English public in his 

 book entitled Aves de Brazil) confirm the widely pre- 

 vailing and popular belief in Brazil and Guiana that 

 these Cassiques choose such trees for their colonies 

 which are also occupied by wasps and their nests. 

 The natives of these regions say that the Cassiques 

 when threatened by an invading carnivorous animal 

 or even by man fly intentionally against the wasp's 

 nest in order to direct the irritation of these insect 

 allies against the intruder, and literally to " bring a 

 hornets' nest about his ears," as the old saying has it! 

 This habit, however, is by no means confined to the 

 Cassiques, and I have had occasion to allude to it 

 several times elsewhere in the present volume. I may 

 also mention in connection with these Cassiques that 

 at least one of the Cow-birds (Cassidnx oryzivora) is 

 parasitic on them, a fact which was first made known 

 by Dr Goeldi, who has most conclusively shown that 

 its eggs are habitually laid in the hanging bag-like 

 nest of Ostinops decumanus. 



As we have seen in the preceding pages, a vast 

 number of birds are at great pains to conceal their 

 nests from view, not only by hiding them in a great 

 variety of situations, but by assimilating them with 

 surrounding objects both in colour and in form. But 

 with the builders of the most typical pendulous nests 

 no attempt is ever made to conceal them. They 

 hang at the extremity of branches in full view of all, 

 and it would seem that in many cases the birds sought 



