172



Mr. Reginald Phillipps,



Cage-Bird Life , Mr. H. Scherren wrote :—“ In Venezuela, accord¬

ing to the report of a collector sent out by the Brooklyn Museum,

there exists a remarkable kind of companionship (‘symbiosis’)

between a certain species of wasps and the Yellow-rumped Hang-

nest. The wasps build a huge nest, which attains a diameter of

5ft., as is shewn by two specimens in the museum ; and around

this as a centre the Hangnests construct a colony of their own

pensile nurseries. If the wasps’ nest be destroyed or abandoned,

the Hangnests forthwith desert their own domiciles.” And,

again, page 494,—“ In The Field, Colonel W. Giffard reports that

he met with something of a similar kind in Gold Coast Hinter¬

land in the case of wasps and a small Waxbill, which I take to be

the Cordon Bleu. He says that the bird nests in bare mimosas,

and of the many he saw each had a wasps’ nest about a foot

from the opening of the nest. The wasps and their nests were

very small, the nests flat and roughly circular. The wasps were

particularly venomous, as he discovered when investigating the

Waxbills’ nests, not having noticed the wasps. ... After he first

noticed the nests close together he never found a Waxbills’ nest

without a wasps’ nest at hand, but occasionally a wasps’ alone.”


Now let us take two ordinary nesting cases of the Dusky

Finch. (1) Gosse, ibid., p. 253:—“....in June was built be¬

tween three contiguous stalks of maize, and an ear. It was a

dome composed of slender stalks of grass and weeds woven

into a globose form, flattened in front, on which side was the

opening. The dried beard of the corn entered into the structure,

and a small frond of fern, and a tendril or two of passion-flower

adorned the entrance. Three eggs were laid, measuring by £

inch ; pointed ; white, splashed with dull red, chiefly at the

larger end, where confluent.” (2) Bonhote, O71 some Bahama

Birds, Avic. Mag, VIII., 280 :—“Another quiet and sombre in¬

habitant of the coppet, as well as of the gardens, is the Bahama

Sparrow... .This bird is remarkably tame and hops about the

verandahs, even coming into the house to pick up the crumbs

from the table. The nest is a very pretty domed structure placed

about four or five feet from the ground at the top of a long

straight sapling. It is made entirely of grass woven and matted

together, with the entrance hole at the side, but without lining



