A TENEMENT HOUSE BUILT BY BIRDS. 119 



ment of which is occupied by the male, while the 

 mother and her little ones are in an inner chamber. 

 Some of the nests belonging to a different species are 

 not only built out on the extreme end of a flexible 

 branch, but all the twigs that might ailord possible 

 foothold to a foe are deliberately stripped ofE ; and 

 still another species, the Mahali weaver birds, cover 

 their nests with a defensive panoply of large, tough, 

 needle-pointed thorns, built into the structure in such 

 a manner that the points project outward. 



The buffalo, weaver bird {Textor DinenulU) builds 

 from three to eight nests combined into one huge 

 structure from five to six feet in length and from 

 four to five in breadth. This may be considered a 

 sort of apartment house, occupied by several families. 

 The noise and bustle about one of these compound 

 nests must be heard to be appreciated. 



The real bird tenement house, however, is con- 

 trived by the sociable weaver bird {Philetce riis 

 socius). Imagine a structure built by birds th"t 

 measure but six inches from the ends of their tails to 

 the tip of their skilKul little beaks, which is as large 

 as a native's hut ; large enough to shelter five or six 

 men ; large enough, in fact, to break down, as it some- 

 times does, the tree in which it is built ! 



ISTor must it be supposed that the tree selected is 

 either small and weak, or brittle. There is a species 

 of acacia {Acacia giraffe) known to the Dutch people 

 of South Africa, where it grows, as Kameel-dorn, or 

 camel tree, because they persist in believing the 

 giraffe, which is very fond of its leaves, a sort of 



