The sun was up, and half an hour would dry all again.
One object, on the edge of the forest, was worth noticing, and was watched long through the glasses; namely, two or three large trees, from which dangled a multitude of the pendant nests of the Merles: {209} birds of the size of a jackdaw, brown and yellow, and mocking- birds, too, of no small ability.

The pouches, two feet long and more, swayed in the breeze, fastened to the end of the boughs with a few threads.

Each had, about half-way down, an opening into the round sac below, in and out of which the Merles crept and fluttered, talking all the while in twenty different notes.

Most tropic birds hide their nests carefully in the bush: the Merles hang theirs fearlessly in the most exposed situations.

They find, I presume, that they are protected enough from monkeys, wild cats, and gato- melaos (a sort of ferret) by being hung at the extremity of the bough.