now a mellowness approaching to musical, with little admixture of that harsh and noisy contention so distracting at the former season, and seem more like a grave consultation upon future procedure, and as winter approaches they depart for some other place. The object of this meeting is unknown, nor are we aware that any other bird revisits the nest it has once forsaken. Domestic fowls, indeed, make use again of their old nests, but this is never, or only occasionally, done by birds in a wild state. The daw and the rock pigeon will build in society with their separate kindred, and the former even revisits in autumn the places it had nestled in. But such situations as these birds require the ruined castle, abbey, or churchtower, ledge in the rock, &c. are not universally found, and are, apparently, occupied from necessity. The rooks appear to associate from preference to society, as trees are common everywhere; but what motive they can have in view in lingering thus for a few autumnal mornings, and counselling with each other around their abandoned and now useless nests, which before the return of spring are generally beaten from the trees, is by no means manifest to us *."

It may be seen, by referring to a preceding page, that the rook is by no means singular in revisiting its nest in autumn, the same being done by the fishhawk (Pandion haliætus), and several others of those birds which build in communities. With respect to birds in a wild state using the same nest, hundreds of examples could be given; and we have mentioned in several places of this volume a number of instances, such as the blue bird (Sialia Wilsonii), the various species of swallows (Hirundinida), and most of the birds which build in holes.

The birds which build in communities in Southern Africa furnish us with other interesting illustrations, * Journal of a Naturalist, p. 188, 1st edit.

Under such circumstances, it is surely not wonderful, that the parent birds should endeavour to entice their young as soon as they can fly, to take excursions to the particular fields where they expect to find a supply of food; yet such enticement does not appear to us to constitute training in the proper meaning of the term.

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A living author of reputation thus describes these nests; but we must premise that we do not coincide with his opinion of the structure being devised for defence*: Several varieties of the finch tribe, in South Africa, suspend their nests from the branches of trees, especially where they happen to impend over a river or precipice. The object of this precaution is obviously to secure their offspring from the assaults of their numerous enemies, particularly the serpent race. To increase the difficulty of access to these tree-rocked cradles,' the entrance is always from below, and frequently through a cylindrical passage of twelve or fifteen inches in length, projecting from the spherical nest, exactly like the tube of a chemist's retort. The whole fabric is most ingeniously and elegantly woven of a species of very tough grass; and the wonderful instinct of foresight (or whatever else we may choose to call it) *See a succeeding chapter on dome-builders.

displayed by the little architect in its construction, is calculated to excite the highest admiration. I have often seen twenty or more of these beautiful nests hanging from a single tree*."

The following is a more detailed account of either the same or a similar species.

"The baya, or bottle-nested sparrow," says Forbes, "is remarkable for its pendent nest, brilliant plumage, and uncommon sagacity. These birds are found in most parts of Hindostan; in shape they resemble the sparrow, as also in the brown feathers of the back and wings; the head and breast of a bright yellow, and in the rays of a tropical sun have a splendid appearance, when flying by thousands in the same grove; they make a chirping noise, but have no song; they associate in large communities, and cover extensive clumps of palmyras, acacias, and date-trees with their nests. These are formed, in a very ingenious manner, by long grass woven together in the shape of a bottle, and suspended by the other end to the extremity of a flexible branch, the more effectually to secure the eggs and young brood from serpents, monkeys, squirrels, and birds of prey. These nests contain several apartments, appropriated to different purposes: in one the hen performs the office of incubation; another, consisting of a little thatched roof and covering a perch, without a bottom, is occupied by the male, who, with his chirping note, cheers the female during her maternal duties."

“Dr. Fryer gives a very pleasant description of the baya, under the name of the toddy-bird, in his entertaining Travels.' Nature, in the rainy season at Bombay, affords us a pleasant spectacle, as well as matter for admiration; for here is a bird that is not only exquisitely curious in the artificial compo* Pringle's Ephemerides, Notes.

sure of its nest with hay, but furnished with devices and stratagems to secure itself and young ones from its deadly enemy, the squirrel; as likewise from the injury of the weather, which being unable to oppose, it eludes with this artifice: contriving the nest like a steeple-hive, with winding meanders, before which hangs a penthouse for the rain to pass, tying it with so slender a thread to the bough of the tree, that the squirrel dare not venture his body, though his mouth water at the eggs and prey within; yet it is strong enough to bear the hanging habitation of the ingenious contriver, free from all the assaults of its