232 
ANIMAL CURIOSITIES 
morants and darters are especially gifted in 
such respect. 
The nest-building habits of birds portray 
quite a number of different vocations, those of 
the tailor, the builder and the artist all being 
represented. The bower birds, for instance, 
in addition to building nests for the reception 
of their eggs, also construct bowers or play¬ 
grounds; the feathered folk often displaying 
their artistic temperament by decorating the 
latter with flowers or bright objects such as 
shells or the brilliantly-coloured wing covers of 
beetles. The baya weaver-bird, according to 
native reports, will even fix fire-flies to its nest 
with the aid of mud for the purpose of fighting 
up its domicile at night, but the veracity of 
this statement is, to say the least, open to 
doubt. 
The weaver-birds are represented by a large 
number of species. Many of them build flask- 
shaped nests with a tubular entrance depending 
from the main structure; but the sociable 
weaver-birds, which congregate together in 
large numbers, make enormous communal nests 
in the shape of an open umbrella, the upper 
part of the structure being almost solid, while 
the lower and flat under-surface is honeycombed 
with small cavities that are the entrances to the 
individual nests. 
