184 HISTORY OF 



of incubation approaches, they fly busily about, in quest of >» 

 kind of moss, called by the English inhabitants of those coun- 

 tries, old maris beard. It is a fibrous substance, and not very 

 unlike hair, which bears being moulded into any form, and suf- 

 fers being glued together. This therefore the little woodpecker, 

 called by the natives of Brazil, the guiratemga, first glues, by 

 some viscous substance gathered in the forest, to the extremest 

 branch of a tree; then building downward, and still adding 

 fresh materials to those already procured, a nest is formed, that 

 depends, like a pouch, from the point of the branch : the hole 

 to enter at, is on the side ; and all the interior parts are lined 

 with the finer fibres of the same substance, which compose the 

 whole. 



Such is the general contrivance of these hanging nests; which 

 are made, by some other birds, with still superior art. A little 

 bird of the Grosbeak kind, in the Philippine islands, makes its 

 nest in such a manner that there is no opening but from the 

 bottom. At the bottom the bird enters, and goes up through a 

 funnel like a chimney, till it comes to the real door of the nest, 

 which lies on one side, and only opens into this funnel.' 



Some birds glue their nest to the leaf of the banana-tree, 



fcred to remain, would prey upon the very vitals, if I may so express it, 

 of the tree, and in the succeeding soramer give birth to myriads more of 

 their race, equally destructive. 



« Here, then, is a whole species, I may say, genus, of birds, wliich Tto- 

 vidence seems to have formed for the protection of our fruit and forest 

 trees from the ravages of vermin, which every day destroy millions of those 

 noxious insects that would otherwise blast the hopes of the husbandman ; 

 and which even promote the fertility of the tree ; and, in return, are pro- 

 scribed by those who ought to have been their protectors ; and incitements 

 -md rewards held out for their destruction ! Let us examine better into 

 the operations of nature, and many of our mistaken opinions and groimdlesa 

 prejudices will be abandoned for more just, enlarged, and humane modes of 

 thinking." 



1 Tliis bird constructs a curious nest ^vith the long fibres of plants and 

 grass, and suspends it by a kind of cord, nearly half an ell long, from the 

 end of a slender branch of a tree, that it may be inaccessible to snakes, and 

 secure from the intrusion of the numerous monkeys which inhabit those re- 

 gions. At the end of this cord, is a gourd-shaped nest, divided into tliree 

 apartments ; the first of which is occupied by the male, the second by the 

 female, and the tliird contains the young ; and in the first apartment, where 

 the male keeps watch, is placed on one side a little tough clay, and on the 

 top of this clay is fixed a glow- worm, to afford its inhabitants Ught in ths 

 night 



