5796 Birds. 



fiction, much at least that has been said or sung of its wonderful 

 powers must be ascribed to the over-excited imagination of the 

 poet. 



Pensile Weaver or Warbler (Ploceus pensilis of Tern., Saxia, Linn.). 

 Is one of the most beautiful as well as elegantly shaped birds of the 

 East : I had a good opportunity of observing its habits, having on one 

 occasion been encamped for some days on the banks of a river close to 

 an old fort, where a colony of weavers (P. pensilis, I believe) had taken 

 up a strong, in fact a fortified, position, their nests being suspended at 

 the very extremity of the drooping branches of some trees, which had 

 sprung up at the foot of the crumbling walls of this ancient fortress, 

 their instinctive sagacity having led them to select what might truly 

 be considered an impregnable post. On the opposite or south side 

 of the fosse was an embankment or glacis, on ascending which the 

 pendulous nests appeared so near that one had a difficulty in believing 

 or in realizing the utter impracticability of a nearer approach, for the 

 moat, although narrow, was unfordable, so, in reality, they were just 

 as secure as if it had been some hundred yards wide. Not only 

 were they safe from the intrusive hand of man, but it would have 

 puzzled a monkey to have got at them, for although it might possibly 

 have descended the wall into the ditch, it would have been quite im- 

 possible for one to have reached the nests, which were placed on the 

 slender twigs of the branches overshadowing the water, and were far 

 too slight to have borne even the weight of a much smaller animal ; so 

 it is easily foreseen what the inevitable result would have been had the 

 attempt been made. Probably a snake might have had a better 

 chance of success, but it is doubtful whether it would have risked the 

 ascent, or rather descent. The flight of the weaver somewhat 

 resembles that of the swallow. When seen soaring and sporting in 

 the sun, the glossy green plumage of the back is very resplendent, 

 and it was a most interesting sight to watch these light and active 

 little creatures in pursuit (as I thought) of the gnats and flies, which 

 swarm in such localities, although I am aware that the weaver is said 

 to be granivorous. A minute description of the nest, which appears 

 as if suspended in mid- air, and is rocked and waved to and fro with 

 every breeze, will not be necessary, it having been so frequently 

 brought to Europe : suffice it to say that it is pear-shaped, the stem 

 of which fruit might serve to represent the slight fibrous cord which 

 unites and secures it to the branch, the opening being placed at the 

 large end, near the bottom of the nest, in which there is a passage or 

 division forming two compartments, the whole being so closely and 



