THE AFRICAN BIRDS’ NEST.
Before passing to the ruins of some of the cities of antiquity, we would here, by way of variety, briefly describe the wonderful and curious nest of the “sociable weavers,” as they are called, which abound in some parts of Africa; a view of which is given in the engraving below. Hundreds of these birds, in one community, join to form a structure of interwoven grass, containing various apartments, all covered by a sloping roof, which is extended, from year to year, as the increase of their numbers may require. A traveler, having examined one of these huge nests, found it to consist mainly of grass, without any mixture, but so firmly basketed together as to be impenetrable to the rain, and extending like a canopy over all the particular nests built by the individual birds. The one he examined contained no less than three hundred and twenty cells.
AFRICAN BIRDS’ NEST.
Returning from this digression, we now pass to the notice of some of the ruins of the cities of antiquity; and first to the