THE SOCIABLE WEAVER BIED. 



451 



oriole are sufficiently curious examples of bird architecture, but those of the Weaver Birds 

 are even more wonderful. Dissimilar in shape, form and material, there is yet a nameless 

 something in the construction of their edifices, which at once points them out as the 

 workmanship of the Weaver Birds. Some of them are huge, heavy, and massive, 

 clustered together in vast multitudes, and bearing down the branches with their weight. 

 Others are light, delicate, and 

 airy, woven so thinly as to 

 permit the breeze to pass through 

 their net-like interior, and dan- 

 gling daintily from the extremity 

 of some slender twig. Others, 

 again, are so firmly built of flat- 

 tened reeds and grass blades, that 

 they can be detached from their 

 branches and subjected to very 

 rough handling without losing 

 their shape, while others are so 

 curiously formed of stiff grass- 

 stalks that their exterior bristles 

 with sharp points like the skin of 

 a hedgehog. 



The true Weaver Birds all 

 inhabit the hotter portions of the 

 Old World, the greater number of 

 them being found in Africa, and 

 the remainder in various parts of 

 India. 



The Sociable Weavee Bied 

 is found in several parts of 

 Africa, and has always attracted 

 the attention of travellers from 

 the very remarkable edifice which 

 it constructs. The large social 

 nests of this bird are so con- 

 spicuous as to be notable ob- 

 jects at many miles' distance, and 

 it is found that they are generally 

 built in the branches of the giraffe 

 thorn or " kameel-dorn," one of 

 the acacia tribe, on which the 

 giraffe is fond of feeding, and 

 which is especially valuable in 

 Southern Africa for the hardness 

 of its wood, from which the axle- 

 trees of waggons, handles of agri- 

 cultural tools, and the strongest 

 timbers of houses are made. This 

 tree only grows in the most arid 



districts, and is therefore very suitable for the purposes of the Sociable Weaver Bird, 

 which has a curious attachment to dry localities far from water. 



The Sociable Weaver Bird, which is by some writers termed the Sociable Grosbeak, in 

 choosing a place for its residence, is careful to select a tree which grows in a retired and 

 sheltered situation, secluded as far as may be from the fierce wind storms which are 

 so common in hot countries. When a pair of these birds have determined to make a new 

 habitation, they proceed after the following fashion. They gather a vast amount of dry 

 grasses, the favourite being a long, tough, and wiry species, called " Booschmanees- 



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SOCIABLE WEAVER BIRD.— Philetcerus socitis. 



