170 
BEAUTIFUL BIEDS. 
of water ; and the shank, which is eight or ten inches 
long, and forms the entrance to the nest, almost 
touches the water. The material of which their nests 
are made appears to be grass or reeds, firmly put 
together and curiously woven. On one side of this, 
within, is the true nest. The bird does not build a 
distinct nest every year, but fastens a new one to the 
lower end of the old ; and as many as five may thus 
be seen one han2:in" from another. Trom five to six 
hundred such nests have been observed crowded upon 
one tree. 
These pensile nests are formed of various shapes 
by the different species of AVeavers ; and one species, 
the Sociable G-rosbeak, bv the united labour of vast 
numbers of tliose birds, forms a connected structure 
of interwoven grass, containing various apartments, 
wliich are all hovered by a sloping roof impervious to 
the heaviest rain. These nests are generally formed 
round the trunk of some tree. The following is Le 
A'aiUant’s description of one of the nests which he 
examined: — “I observed, on the way, a tree with an 
enormous nest of these bu’ds, to which I have given 
the name of Kepublicans ; and as soon as I arrived at 
my camp, I despatched a few men vdth a wagon to 
bring it to me, that I might open the hive and examine 
its structure in its -minutest parts. AYhen it arrived 
I cut it to pieces with a hatchet, and saw the chief 
portion of the structure consisted of a inass of 
grass, without any mixture, but so compact and 
firmly basketed together as to be impenetrable to the 
rain. This is the commencement of the structure ; 
and each bird builds its particular nest imder this 
