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Updated: May 13, 2025
They build remarkably large nests; sometimes, indeed, several pairs of birds build one together much in the same way as do the sociable weaver-birds of Africa where they live together on friendly terms. It resembles another African bird in its habit of picking off ticks from the backs of oxen, the same duty being performed by the South American goatsucker.
They are usually granivorous, though some are insectivorous; and one species, the "red-billed weaver bird" is a parasite of the wild buffaloes. It is a mistake to suppose that weaver-birds are only found in Africa and the Old World, as stated in the works of many naturalists.
They were each twelve or fifteen inches in length, and of a greenish colour nearly as green as the leaves of the tree itself. Were they its fruit? No. The weeping-willow bears no fruit of that size. They were not fruit. They were nests of birds! Yes; they were the nests of a colony of harmless finches of the genus Ploceus, better known to you under the appellation of "weaver-birds."
The entrances are in the under-surface of this mass, which, occupying the whole top of a tree, has the appearance of a haystack, or a dense piece of thatch. All these weaver-birds, though of different genera, bear a considerable resemblance to each other in their habits.
No doubt from this source have been derived the tales of ancient travellers, who represented that in Africa were trees with fruits upon them, which, upon being broken open, disclosed to view either living birds or their eggs! Now the sight of the weaver-birds, and their nests, was nothing new to Trüey.
She was no longer the beautiful female of her species, to be sung to by the weaver-birds as she passed beneath. She was a hag and a vampire, hatred of whom lay deep in every human heart in her hunting range. Often the hunting was poor, and sometimes she went many days in a stretch without making a single kill. And in all beasts, high and low, this is the last step to the worst degeneracy of all.
Who has not thought with admiration of the weaver-birds, and of our own native wren? But the rooms that were offered to us corresponded in no wise with those that we had imagined the doors of the beautiful galleries would lead us into.
From the trees and bushes hang pear-shaped nests plaited beautifully of long grasses, hard and smooth as hand-made baskets, the work of the various sorts of weaver-birds. In the tops of the trees roosted tall marabout storks like dissipated, hairless old club-men in well-groomed, correct evening dress. And around camp gathered the swift brown kites.
This family includes the weaver-birds, famous for their wonderful hanging retort-shaped nests, and the munias, of which the amadavat or lal is familiar to every resident of India as a cage bird. The weaver-birds do not ascend the hills, but several species of munia are found on the Nilgiris. They occur in flocks on closely-cropped grassland. They feed on the ground.
The "social grosbeak" fabricates a republic of nests in one clump, and all under one roof. The entrances are in the under-surface of this mass, which, occupying the whole top of a tree, has the appearance of a haystack, or a dense piece of thatch. All these weaver-birds, though of different genera, bear a considerable resemblance to each other in their habits.
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