GROSBEAK, THE ABYSSINIAN — THE PENSILE. 177 



While the Lapwing, repeating his noisy Pee-wit, 

 Flew around in a flutter, perchance of deceit. 



branch of some tree, that it may be inaccessible to snakes and 

 other hostile animals; ihe interior, it is said, consists Of three 

 divisions; the first is occupied by the male, the second by the 

 female, the third by the young. In the first apartment, where 

 the male keeps watch while the female is hatching, a little clay 

 is placed on one side, and on the top of this a glowworm, which 

 affords its inhabitants light in the night-time! The nest of the 

 second variety is spiral, with an opening on one side, which is 

 always turned from the rainy quarter. This account of the 

 nest of this bird is, I confess, a little bordering on the impro- 

 bable^ I have no means of ascertaining its correctness. Lord 

 Valencia saw hundreds of the nests of this bird on a tamarind 

 tree in the East Indies; they were like a long cylinder, swelling 

 out in a globose form in the middle, and fastened to the extreme 

 branches of the tree. 



The Abyssinica, or Abyssinian-Grosbeak, is yellowish ; the 

 crown, temples, throat, and breast black ; inhabits Abyssinia ; 

 size of the hawfinch; nest pyramidal, pendent, with an opening 

 on one side., and divided in the middle by a partition. 



The Pensilis, or Pensile-Grosbeak, is green; head and 

 throat yellow ; belly grey ; size of a house sparrow j inhabits 

 Madagascar; nest pensile, shaped like a bag, with an opening 

 beneath, on one side of which is the true nest ; does not choose 

 a new situation every year, but fastens a new nest to the end of 

 the last, often having a chain of five nests in succession ; builds 

 in large societies ; brings three at each hatching. 



The Socia, or Sociable-Grosbeak, is rufous-brown, beneath 

 yellowish; inhabits the Cape of Good Hope; five and a half 

 inches long; lives together in vast tribes from eight hundred to 

 a thousand, at times, under one common roof, containing their 

 several nests, which are built on a large species of the mimosa. 



For an account of the Pyrrhula, Bulfinch, see Note (^ 8 ). 



i 3 



