DWELLINGS. 1 89 



constitute the first sketch of the nest, at this moment 

 like a flat-bottomed basket. This is only the begin- 

 ning. The whole wall is reinforced by the addition of 

 new material. The architect piles up down from the 

 poplar and the willow, and binds it all together with 

 filaments torn from the bark of trees, so as to make 

 a whole which is very resistant. Then a couch is 

 formed by heaping up wool and down at the bottom 

 of the nest. 



The American Baltimore Oriole, also called the Balti- 

 more Bird, is a distinguished weaver. With strong 

 stalks and hemp or flax, fastened round two forked 

 twigs corresponding to the proposed width of nest, it 

 makes a very delicate sort of mat, weaving into it 

 quantities of loose tow. The form of the nest might 

 be compared to that of a ham ; it is attached by the 

 narrow portion to a small branch, the large part being 

 below. An opening exists at the lower end of the 

 dwelling, and the interior is carefully lined with soft 

 substances, well interwoven with the outward netting, 

 and it is finished with an external layer of horse-hair, 

 while the whole is protected from sun and rain by a 

 natural canopy of leaves. 



The Rufous-necked Weaver Bird, as described by 

 Brehm, shows itself equally clever. Its nest is woven 

 with extreme delicacy, and resembles a long-necked 

 decanter hung up with the opening below. From the 

 bottom of the decanter a strong band attaches the 

 whole to the branch of a tree. (Fig. 28.) The 

 Yellow Weaver Bird of Java, as described by Forbes, 

 constructs very similar retort-shaped nests.^ 



These birds have no monopoly of these careful 



1 H. O. Forbes, A NaturalisCs Wanderings in the Eastern Archi-^ 

 pelajo, 1885, pp. 56-58. 



