acquired sufficient strength. No sooner is the second chamber of which we have spoken completed than the female, who has hitherto worked with her mate, retires into the part designed for her eggs, and occupies herself in weaving together the fine grass with which the interior is lined, the materials for the work being brought to her by the male bird, who alone continues the building of the passage and exterior portions of the nest. When this part of the work is concluded, the little artisan proceeds to carry in the lumps of clay, about the use of which so many opinions have been expressed. The natives assert that to these pieces of clay the male affixes fire-flies, to illumine the interior of the nest. Layard imagines them to be employed by the little builder as a whetstone whereon to whet its beak, whilst we ourselves are of opinion that they serve merely as a means of weighting the structure as it hangs suspended in the air, and have many times remarked that an unfinished nest contained more clay-balls than one that was completed. Very various accounts are given as to the number of eggs that form a brood; we have never found more than three, and feel sure that in cases where six or seven have been discovered two females must have occupied the nest. Young Bayas are frequently tamed, and form a most interesting and attractive addition to an aviary. * * * * * The CRIMSON-BEAKED WEAVER BIRDS constitute a separate group, distinguished by the unusual height and depth of their beak, which is nearly equal to two-thirds of its entire length; in shape it is slightly arched, and compressed towards its edges. The wings reach to the middle of the tail, which is short, but slightly graduated and rounded at its extremity; the plumage is brownish, spotted on the lower portion of the body when the bird is young, becoming at a later period of a yellowish or reddish shade. THE CRIMSON-BEAKED WEAVER BIRD. [Illustration: THE JAVA WEAVER BIRD (BAYA), AND NESTS.]