402 
MORE WEAVER-BIRDS. 
also artists in the consti'uction of their nests — employing the simplest 
materials, such as stems of grass, but weaving them into a light and 
graceful weft. These they do not suspend from branch or bough, but 
hide among the low bushes, and in the heart of the taller grasses. In 
shape, as in size, they vary greatly. Some are rounded, others 
elongated. On an average they measure from seven to eight or nine 
inches in length, and from four to five inches in breadth. The sides 
are made like trellis-work, so that the eggs can be seen through the 
intervals. 
The alecto weaver-bird, or Texter erythorhynchus, to which we 
have previously alluded under the name of the buffalo-bird, has some 
pretensions to be regarded as an architect. He is always found in 
small companies, which apparently live together, and hunt together; 
building their nests, from six to eighteen in number, on the same tree, 
which must be strong enough to bear their weight, and is carefully 
selected for the purpose. For each nest, as compared with the size of 
the bird inhabiting it, is colossal, measuring from four to five feet in 
diameter. It is built up of branches and twigs, and especially of 
thorny mimosas. These materials are deposited in the fork of a 
bough, but are loosely arranged ; and care is taken to leave an entrance 
like that of a funnel, gradually contracting inwards until it is only just 
wide enough to admit of the passage of the bird. 
The sociable weaver-bird is, however, a much more remarkable 
example of constructive intelligence ; and what he accomplishes with 
his elongated, conical, and compressed bill moves the traveller to 
admiration. He belongs to a limited region in Africa ; not being found, 
we believe, south of the Orange River, and certainly not venturing far 
north of the E(][uator. One of the earliest references to him and his 
work occurs in Mr. W. Paterson's " Narrative of Four Journeys into 
the Country of the Hottentots," published in 1789. There we read 
that in Namaqua Land are forests of mimosas, which yield abundance 
of gum, and the branches of which furnish the giraffes with a plentiful 
supply of food. Their extensive branches and flattened trunks shelter 
