294 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
leetedfrom the egg-pouches, which is stitched through holes 
made in the edges of leaves, presumably with the beak. 
The baya bird of India 4 hangs its pendulous dwelling 
from a projecting bough, twisting it with grass into a form 
somewhat resembling a bottle with a prolonged neck, the 
entrance being inverted, so as to baffle the approaches of 
its enemies, the tree snakes and other reptiles. 5 
Sir E. Tennent, from whom this account is taken, 
adds : — 
The natives assert that the male bird carries fire-flies to the 
nest, and fastens them to its sides by particles of soft mud. Mr. 
Layard assures me that although he has never succeeded in 
finding the fire-fly, the nest of the male bird (for the female 
occupies another during incubation) invariably contains a patch 
of mud on each side of the perch. 
Dr. Buchanan confirms the report of the natives here 
alluded to, and says : — 
At night each of the habitations is lighted up by a fire-fly 
stuck on the top with a bit of clay. The nest consists of two 
rooms; sometimes there are three or four fire-flies, and their 
blaze in the little cells dazzles the eyes of the bats, which often 
kill the young of these birds. 
While this work is passing through the press I meet 
with the following, which appears to refer to some inde- 
pendent, and therefore corroborative observation concern- 
ing the above-stated fact, and in any case is worth adding, 
on account of the observation concerning the rats, which, 
if trustworthy, would furnish a sufficient reason for the 
instinct of the birds. The extract is taken from a letter to 
6 Nature 5 (xxiv., p. 165), published by Mr. H. A. Severn : 
I have been informed on safe authority that the Indian 
bottle-bird protects his nest at night by sticking several of these 
glow-beetles around the entrance bv means of clay ; and only a 
few days back an intimate friend of my own was watching three 
rats on a roof rafter of his bungalow when a glow-fly lodged 
very close to them ; the rats immediately scampered off. 
TheTalegallus of Australia is, in the opinion of Gould,- — 
Among the most important of the ornithological novelties 
which the exploration of Western and Southern Australia has 
