MONOGRAPH OF PLOCEUS BA YA 
25 
might be wholly spared by the gamekeeper’s gun. It needs only 
an examination of the pellets of these birds to be assured of the 
immense quantity of mice, moles, and rats that are caught by 
them. Sparing owls and kestrels from destruction is no more 
than bare common sense from every practical point of view. 
Watching various kinds of wild creatures is a continual 
pleasure to me, and affords much additional interest to my daily 
walks. 
Even when I am sitting indoors, eight or ten squirrels are 
generally to be seen playing outside the window, and it is their 
habit to come boldly into the room in search of nuts which are 
freely provided for them. A gentle hen pheasant has become so 
tame as almost to be persuaded to eat out of my hand ; and when 
the nuthatches have taken their share of Barcelonas, and other 
birds have satisfied their appetites with soaked bread, fat, canary 
seed, and other dainties, I often see a hedgehog steal up to the 
window, in broad daylight, to enjoy his humble repast. 
I am accustomed to living in happy accord with all living 
things, but my visitors often look on with amazement at the 
tameness of “ Wild Nature.” 
It needs but the absence of guns, dogs and cats, and the 
provision of suitable food for the creatures we desire to attract, 
for the same results to be attained, to some extent, in any 
quiet country garden. I can but hope some readers may be 
induced to try to thus win the confidence of wild creatures, and 
experience for themselves the pleasure that may be enjoyed in 
their company and friendship. 
Great Stanmore. Eliza Brightwen. 
A SHORT MONOGRAPH OF PLOCEUS BAYA, 
ONE OF THE WEAVER BIRDS. 
ERHAPS there is no more interesting a group of little 
birds than the weavers, not so much on account of 
their plumage — which, however, in some of the species 
is very brilliant — as on account of the singularly 
skilful manner in which they construct their nests. There are, 
I gather, between 200 and 300 species of them, and they are 
invariably to be found in the warm regions of the earth. They 
have selected as their home the mild tracts of Africa, Australia, 
Abyssinia, India, Ceylon and the Eastern Archipelago, and 
have come to be classed by ornithologists as in the “ Oriental 
region.” 
They are allied to our finches, and some species were for- 
merly included in the genus Fringilla. Cuvier brought together 
the variously distributed forms into a genus named by him 
Ploceus, from the Greek “ pleko,” weave. Cabanis formed 
the family Ploceidae. By the French they are known as 
