RAVENS. 



221 



districts, and such plantations or human habitations as may be in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of forests, but avoiding barren or open parts of the country. It is social and active, flying about 

 incessantly amongst the trees, and hanging suspended by its sharp claws from the branches, from 

 time to time plucking a favourite fruit, and carrying it off with cries of delight to another spot where 

 it may be eaten in safety. During the season, oranges and bananas constitute its favourite food, and 

 large quantities of valuable fruit are thus destroyed, in spite of all the precautions taken by the planters 

 for its preservation ; but at other times the Japu contents itself with less dainty fare, and subsists 

 principally upon insects and berries. Few scenes are more animated than that afforded by a settle- 

 ment of these interesting birds, as they perch upon the branches of the forest trees, in parties of some 



THE GREAT BOAT 



tail (Quiscaius major). 



thirty or forty couples, or fly about filling the whole air with their strange and varied song, the general 

 effect of which, when thus heard in chorus, is far from unpleasing, though some notes are harsh, and 

 others very shrill. 



Their nests, which are extremely curious, are suspended close together from the branches of the 

 highest trees ; in shape they are not unlike a purse, being long, narrow, and rounded at die bottom, 

 usually three or four feet long, and not more than five or six inches wide. A bough of about the 

 thickness of a man's finger is usually chosen for their support, and to this they are stoutly fastened, a 

 long and narrow hole being left at the top for an entrance. Occasionally these abodes are built one 

 upon another, each being provided with a separate opening. The Japu constructs this large and 

 beautiful fabric with the greatest care, weaving together the various fibres of which it is formed so 



