202 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



Aix the pensile birds are remaxkable for the eccentricity of 

 shape and design which marks their nests ; although they agree 

 in one point, namely, that they dangle at the end of twigs, and 

 dance about merrily at every breeze. Some of them are very 

 long, others are very short; some have their entrance at the 

 side, others from below, and others, again, from near the top. 

 Some are hung, hammock-like, from one twig to another ; others 

 are suspended to the extremity of the twig itself; while others, 

 that build in the palms, which have no true branches, and no 

 twigs at all, fasten their nests to the extremities of the leaves. 

 Some are made of various fibres, and others of the coarsest grass- 

 straws : some are so loose in their texture, that the eggs can be 

 plainly seen through them ; while others are so strong and thick, 

 that they almost look as if they were made by a professional 

 thatcher. 



A good example of the last-mentioned description of nest is 

 the Mahali Weaver-Bird of South Africa (PHojoasser Mahali). 

 Although the architect is a small bird, measuring only six inches 

 in total length, the nest which it makes is of considerable size, 

 and is formed of substances so stout, that, when the edifice and 

 the builder are compared together, the strength of the bird seems 

 quite inadequate to the management of such materials. 



The general shape of the nest is not unlike that of a Florence 

 oU-flask, supposing the neck to be shortened and widened, the 

 body to be lengthened, and the whole flask to be enlarged to 

 treble its dimensions. Instead, however, of being smooth on the 

 exterior, like the flask, it is intentionally made as rough as pos- 

 sible. The ends of all the grass-stalks, which are of very great 

 thickness, project outwards, and point towards the mouth of the 

 nest, which hangs downwards ; so that they serve as eaves 

 whereby the rain is thrown off the nest, and possibly serve also 

 as a protection against foes, though the latter theory has not yet 

 been corroborated by observation. 



It is true that the grass stems protrude from the nest like 

 " quills upon the fretful porcupine ;" but that they really afford 

 any obstacle to the attacks of a snake or a monkey I cannot 

 believe. If the snake were able to get at the nest at all, it 

 could glide into the aperture, with an upward curve of the 

 flexible body, without troubling itself about the spikes ; and if a 

 monkey were to reach the nest, it seems to me that the pro- 



