THE BAYA BIRD. 125 



numerous in the localities they frequent. At least 

 this is the case in India and Japan, in which latter 

 country birds actually build their nests in the houses, 

 and are considered part of the families among whom 

 they live. 



The nest of the baya consists of three compart- 

 ments : one, in the long, tubular entrance, is used for 

 what might be called the sitting and sleeping room, 

 which, when the little birds have grown sufficiently 

 and are strong enough, they occupy with their par- 

 ents, having before been kept in the inner compart- 

 ment or nursery ; another, the third, is placed by the 

 side of the nursery; its use has not been certainly de- 

 termined by naturalists, though it is thought by some 

 to be the especial property of the male — a sort of 

 growlery, I suppose, to which he can retire after a 

 curtain lecture, or to escape the noise of the young 

 ones, or think over some business matter. 



The strangest part of the furnishing and comple- 

 tion of their nests remains to be told. "When other- 

 vrise finished the nest is studded with balls of soft 

 clay, which the natives declare are used as candle- 

 sticks, for in each one of them the baya fastens one of 

 the brilliant tropical fireflies that abound in that re- 

 gion. 



Some ornithologists, without any better reason 

 that I can discover than the strangeness of the story — 

 for scientific folks do not like to credit strange stories 

 which they do not themselves originate — discredit this 

 story of the natives, though they admit the presence 

 of the balls of clay, andean give none but the most 



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