134 CLASS AVES. 



Certain species of orioli attach their nests under the fohage 

 of the banana- tree. Some of them construct in common nume- 

 rous houses, divided into four chambers, and lodging several 

 families ; and to prevent any mutual embarrassment, they trace 

 corridors^ %Yinding paths, by ^vhich each can repair to its nest. 

 The caciques form theirs after the fashion of a gourd, and 

 suspend them, like numerous girandoles, on the same trees. 

 The anis of the savannahs (crotophaga) lay and hatch, in 

 common, in large nests divided into compartments, and covered 

 with foliage. The yapous suspend their nests like alembics, 

 or small lamps, on the trees in South America. The balti- 

 more's nests resemble purses, with two openings. The small 

 fig-eaters, with yellow neck, hang their nests to the flexible 

 branches of willows ; and the motacilla siitoria sows a leaf 

 detached from a tree, to another leaf placed at the extremity 

 of a branch, in a sort of scuttle shape, to receive its delicate 

 brood. The nest of the baglafecht (loxia phillipina) is a sort 

 of sac, twisted spirally like the shell of the nautilus, and sus- 

 pended to the extremities of the branches. In the same man- 

 ner are formed those of the toucnam-courvi, nelicourvi, &c. 



We find the perfect art of the basketmaker in the nest of the 

 hirundo aciiiijjennis of Louisiana. It constructs at first a sort 

 of platform, with little dry branches and briars, cemented with 

 the styrax of liquid amber, on which it places a nest composed 

 of small sticks, glued together with the same gum, and disposed 

 nearly after the manner of the osiers of a basket. It gives to 

 this admirable little piece of workmanship the form of a third 

 of a circle, and fixes it by its extremities to the walls of a 

 chimney. 



Among the grallse, the small water-rail (rallus porzana, 

 Lin.) constructs a nest well worthy of observation. This nest 

 is formed like a bark, floats upon the water, and is attached by 

 one of its extremities to the stalk of a reed. 



The motacilla salicaria constructs its nest round three stalks 

 of reeds, with plants which grow in the marshes. These stalks 



