48 
No. 24.—THE AVIARY. 
This building was constructed during the aummer and fall 
of 1881, and was opened to the public in March of the fol¬ 
lowing year. The north annex, containing the large series 
of parrots, was added in 1900. 
The order Passeres is the largest of all the higher groups, 
and includes more than one-half of the whole class of birds; 
all the songsters belong to it, and most of the birds familiar 
in our midst. 
The thrushes are represented here by the Wood Thrush 
(7 urdus mustelinus ) of America, the Robin (T 7 . migratorius ), 
the English Blackbird (T. merula ), the Mocking Bird ( T ' 
polyglottus ), the Cat Bird (G. Carolinensis ), the Mocking 
Bird Thrush (. Mimocichla rubripes ), from Cuba, and a num¬ 
ber of other species. 
The Long-tailed Weaver Bird ( Chera progne). This 
species may be known by the great elongation of the central 
tail-feathers of the male. These reach so great a length that 
a celebrated African traveler says of them:— 
“ I am informed that in the breeding season, when the male has assumed 
his nuptial livery and long tail-feathers, his flight is so labored that the 
children constantly run them down. They are quite unable to fly against the 
wind, and in rainy weather can hardly be got to move out of the thick bushes 
in which, knowing their helplessness, they conceal themselves. 
“ The Kaffir children stretch bird-limed lines across the fields of millet and 
Kaffir com, and snare great numbers of the males by their tails becoming 
entangled in the lines.— Layard , “Birds of South Africa .” 
The weaver or whidah birds are noted fof the peculiar nests 
which they weave from grass; these are mostly built on the 
community system, hundreds of the birds constructing to¬ 
gether a sort of roof under which they separately build their 
nests. These nests are of different shapes, some of them 
much resembling a chemist’s retort, with the neck down, the 
orifice serving as entrance for all the birds whose dwellings 
are within. They are all natives of Africa. 
The birds of the genus Pyromelana are conspicuous by the 
livery of black and brilliant yellow or orange worn by the 
males during part of the year; the Bishop Weaver ( P.fran - 
ciscana), and the Black-bellied Weaver (P. afer ), being 
among them. 
