208 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



throughout the whole year, it gives every opportunity for ob- 

 serving its habits. 



The nest of this bird is very curious, and always pensile ; and, 

 though it can never be mistaken for that of any other bird, it is 

 built after a very diverse fashion. Usually, it is fastened to the 

 spathe of the common cocoa-nut palm, being cemented to the 

 leaf so firmly, that if it be pulled away by force, the outside 

 integument of the leaf comes away also. The nest is ingeniously 

 hidden in the leaf, so that it would not be noticed by an ordinary 

 observer, were it not that in some cases the bird is so very 

 liberal of its materials that their superabundance betrays its 

 presence. The nest is made of cotton and feathers, the cotton 

 forming the exterior and the feathers the lining. The walls of 

 the nest are very strong, though flexible, and something like felt, 

 being firmly compacted, and containing an enormous mass of 

 downy feathers, in the middle of which the eggs are laid. 



The cotton is of a very short staple, and is not the substance 

 used in commerce, but the produce of the silk-cotton trees belong- 

 ing to the genus Bombax. These trees are of very great size, the 

 trunks running nearly a hundred feet in height, without a branch, 

 and being even more than proportionately thick. The cotton 

 is of very trifling use in commerce, the staple being not much 

 more than an inch in length, and is chiefly employed for stufling 

 mattresses and pillows. The native tribes of Guiana use it for 

 the tiny arrows which they project through their long and slender 

 air-guns, fastening it upon the head of the arrows so as to make 

 them fit the tube. A quantity of this cotton is now before me, 

 and it is evident that the very qualities which render it useless 

 for commercial or mechanical purposes are precisely those which 

 are best adapted for the structure of the nest. It is remarkably 

 fine in texture, being almost silky to the touch ; and, instead of 

 becoming inextricably entangled, as is the case with ordinary 

 cotton-wool, it cannot be handled without leaving a number of 

 short fibres on the fingers. Its usual colour is yellowish, but 

 occasionally it is nearly white. 



Several nests are often found in each spathe; and it is a 

 curious fact that, in such cases, they are agglutinated together 

 with the same substance that fastens them so firmly to the leaf, 

 and are coimected by a kind of gallery, which runs along 

 the side, and communicates with each nest. It is thought 



