AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 373 



their young. Hundreds of these birds combine in building an immense 

 tenement house, for protection from the common evening snakes. 



All unite in building a straw roof attached to a large branch of a 

 tree, beneath this each couple builds its own apartment, each room 

 opening upon what might be called a corridor, which has many en- 

 trances from the outside world. The nests are often several months 

 in building, as they are often torn to pieces and rebuilt several times 

 "before the owners are suited. They are made of fine twigs, grasses 

 and fibres, moistened by the saliva of the bird, and woven together so 

 firmly that trees are sometimes thickly covered with nests built by 

 many generations of birds. Other members of this family weave 

 strangely shaped nests. Some hang like a gourd hanging by its stem, 

 others small at either end, aad globelike in the middle, and some re- 

 semble nicely padded willow baskets. The Mahali Weaver Birds place 

 thorns with the points outwards in the walls of their nests for defense. 



In another species we find Mr. Gold-fronted Weaver at his ease in a 

 separate home while Mrs. Weaver ministers to the needs of the family. 

 We cannot tarry to call on others of this interesting family, but as we 

 may never visit Africa again we will call before we leave upon a pris- 

 oner. Do you see that beak, nearly a foot long, thrust through an 

 opening in a hollow tree trunk ? That belongs to Mrs. Hornbill, who, 

 closed in a dark cell, must pluck her own feathers to carpet her nest, 

 lay her eggs and hatch her little ones. How came she in such a plight? 

 Alas! a cruel husband is the jailer. He closed the prison door, gather- 

 ing mud and plastering up the entrance, leaving just enough room for 

 my lady's beak. But he is not altogether cruel, for day after day, he 

 -works hard to supply her with choice berries and fruits, until the little 

 iamily have reached years of discretion and are released from confine- 

 ment. . 



Now we will hasten to India and stop for a moment to see Mrs. Baya, 

 also a weaver, who is a great pet about the houses of the natives, and 

 is trained to do a variety of tricks. Little Mrs. Baya with her strong 

 curved bill has woven a remarkable tubular structure of various veget- 

 able substances. As this sways from a palm branch, or perhaps from 

 the eaves of a native hut, the infant Bayas greet us from a round win- 

 dow in the side of the nest. 



In India, too, in the dense forests we shall find the nest of the 

 Xlecho, one of the Swifts, with walls of the thickness of parchment; 

 composed of feathers woven together and cemented with the bird's 

 saliva. The nest is built only large enough to just hold the one egg, 

 and so the walls are too delicate to bear the weight of the mother bird. 



