170 ARTISTS AND ARTISANS IN THE FEATHERED WORLD. 



are light, delicate and airy, so thin that the breezes may 

 pass through their net-like walls, the whole hanging 

 daintily from the extremity of some slender twig. Others, 

 again, are so firmly built of flattened 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 body of a hedge-hog. 



Let us inspect some of these more closely. There is, 

 first, the sociable weaver bird, or republican gros- 

 beak (Ploceus socius). He will not use the same nest in 

 the following season, but builds a new house, which he 

 fastens to the under side of his previous residence. As, 

 moreover, the number of the nests is increased year by 

 year, the weaver birds are forced to enlarge their 

 thatched coverings to a proportionate extent, and in 

 course of years they heap so enormoas a quantity of 

 grass upon the branches that it fairly gives way with the 

 weight, and they are forced to build another habitation. 

 The object of this remarkable sociable quality in the bird 

 is somewhat obscure. As in many instances the nests of 

 the weaver birds are evidently constructed for the pur- 

 pose of guarding them from the attacks of snakes and 

 monkeys, it is not improbable that the sociable weaver 

 birds may find in mutual association a safegard against 

 their adversaries, who do not care to face the united 

 attacks of so many bold, though diminutive antagonists. 

 Monkeys sometimes form chains down from overhanging 

 branches, to get at the nests and their toothsome living 

 contents. It is reported that in one such case the bird 

 flew to the first monkey, who held all the others, pinched 

 him at the tail, so that he let go, and all the monkeys 

 dropped into the water flowing underneath. 



More artistic still is the nest of the Philippine weaver 

 bird (Ploceus philippium), which suspends its domicile 



