NESTS OF THE BAYA WEAVER-BIRD 



In India these birds usually suspend their nests from branches of palrns or other trees which over- 

 hang a stream, and weight them with lumps of clay which prevent them swaying about at the mercy of 

 the wind. The nati/es state that fireflies are fastened into the clay for the purpose of frightening away 

 rats and snakes. The curious compound nest in the foreground is drawn from a specimen in the 

 Natural History Museum at South Kensington. 



