THE BIRDS OF LIBERIA 7dl 
to alight upon it, presently returning to settle down momentarily. Some of 
these branches had a single nest of the previous season, made of strips of 
palm leaf now faded and brown, but others were evidently newly made claims 
on which nest-building had not yet begun. Where there was an old nest on 
the branch, the incumbent male seemed to take great interest in it. One I 
watched brought long strands of palm leaf and, clinging to the under side of 
the structure, would weave them in and out, poking the end in and pulling 
it through with its bill, and poking it in again. This particular male was 
first seen clinging to the under side of the old nest, and looking into it, mean- 
while fluttering his widely open wings above his back like a huge butterfly. 
Presently to my surprise a small bird of an unrecognized species flew out and 
away, and though I afterward saw the old male weaving additional strands 
into the substance of the nest, I did not again see him looking in and flutter- 
ing his wings, a frequent action observed at various colonies and perhaps in 
the nature of a courtship display. Some of the other males stationed each 
on his proper branch, would occasionally pluck off a piece of a nearby leaf, 
toying with it in their bills. Some that had no nest on their branch would 
come with a fresh strip of palm leaf and start weaving it among the twigs. 
Biuttikofer says that the ring-like opening of the nest is first constructed and 
the purse-like portion afterward. It is certain, however, that the old nests 
are frequently added to in the succeeding season, for several of those in this 
little colony showed new green strips interwoven with the faded brown ones 
of the previous nesting period. In the two or three days while this colony 
was watched no females were in evidence in the nesting tree though I once 
saw a single one some 150 yards away. At the large colony at Suehn, in early 
November, several hundred birds were actively engaged and quantities of nests 
swung from the branches of a giant silk-cotton tree that shaded the principal 
dwellings. This colony had evidently been here for a long time. In contrast 
to the new one just described, with but a single nest to a small branch (usually 
averaging about a yard in length), the swinging baskets were thickly clustered, 
especially on some of the larger dead branches. In these clusters some of the 
nests appeared to be old, and may have been unused at the time. Each was 
usually on a separate twig, though not on a separate small branch. There 
was great activity throughout the day, with a continuous uproar of squeaks 
and chattering and sibilant notes of the birds. The males seemed the most 
in evidence and were constantly coming and going, some sitting near their 
nests, others clinging to the under side and peeking into the nest-opening with 
fluttering wings, like so many butterflies. Many others were arriving with 
long trailing strips of palm leaf taken from a tree a hundred yards or more 
away. No sooner would a male bird alight on the nest and start weaving in 
the strip when two or three of his neighbors, males, would seize the hanging 
thread, and try to drag it away. At times two or three males would be hang- 
ing to the same strip, which eventually broke or was cut by their sharp bills 
before the first male could weave in more than a very small portion of it. So 
great is the demand for the strips of palm leaf that often nearly every frond 
