THE SOCIABLE WEAVER BiRD. 



439 



Sociable Weaver Bird. 



Large as is the domicile, and capable at last of containing a 

 vast number of parents and young, it is originally the work of a 

 single pair, and attains its enormous dimensions by the labors of 

 those birds which choose to associate in common. The first task 

 of this Weaver Bird is to procure a large quantity of the herb 

 which really seems as if made expressly for the purpose. This 

 is a grass with a very large, very tough, and very wiry blade, 

 which is known to the colonists as Booschmannie grass, probably 

 because it grows plentifully in that part of Southern Africa where 

 the Bushmen, or Bosjesmans live. 



They carry this grass to some suitable tree, which is usually a 

 species of acacia, called by the Dutch colonists Kameel-dorn {Aca- 

 cia giraffa), because the giraffe, which the Dutch persist in calling 

 a kameel or camel, is fond of grazing on the leaves. This is a 

 most appropriate tree for the purpose, as the wood is extremely 



