BIRDS. 
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the half of a walnut, made of a bay-coloured down, the 
produce of the silk-cotton tree, most compactly inter- 
woven, and mingled with the glossy down of an Asclepias. 
Externally it is cpiite covered with spiders’ webs, crossed 
and recrossed in every direction, and made to adhere by 
some viscous substance, evidently applied after the web 
was placed, probably the saliva of the bird. These webs 
are used to confine little bits of pale-green lichen, which 
are stuck about here and there, and impart a rustic pretti- 
ness to it. To see a bird sitting in a cup like this is very 
amusing. Small as is the species, it seems impossible that 
it should be able to crumple itself up sufficiently to be con- 
tained in so tiny a cavity, especially when two eggs are 
lodo-ed in the bottom; but the incubation is managed. 
The head and tail are both excluded, the latter projecting 
erect ; the belly and feet alone are contained within the 
circumference, which they completely fill. 
A volume * of great interest has been written, devoted 
exclusively to the various kinds, forms and materials of 
birds’ nests; and the subject is far from exhausted. We, 
as yet, know comparatively little of the nests which are 
constructed by the hundreds of species of birds from 
foreign, especially intertropical, countries, that crowd the 
shelves of our museums. Yet, among those with which 
intelligent travellers have made us acquainted, are found 
some of the most curious and admirable examples of the 
constructive faculty. 
Thus the Baya, or Indian Sparrow (Ploceus Philippensis), 
described by Sir William Jones and others, is said to make 
a nest “ of grass, which he weaves like cloth, and shapes 
* Rennie’s “Architecture of Birds.” London, 1831. 
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