The blackbird and the jay
build their nests after the same fashion. The nest of the penduline
tit shows great mechanical skill; it has the appearance of a ball of
flax, and the hole for entry is very small.
People who live where the bird comes from say that there
exists a cinnamon bird which brings the cinnamon from some unknown
localities, and builds its nest out of it; it builds on high trees
on the slender top branches. They say that the inhabitants attach
leaden weights to the tips of their arrows and therewith bring down
the nests, and from the intertexture collect the cinnamon sticks.
14
The halcyon is not much larger than the sparrow. Its colour is
dark blue, green, and light purple; the whole body and wings, and
especially parts about the neck, show these colours in a mixed way,
without any colour being sharply defined; the beak is light green,
long and slender: such, then, is the look of the bird. Its nest is
like sea-balls, i.e. the things that by the name of halosachne or
seafoam, only the colour is not the same. The colour of the nest is
light red, and the shape is that of the long-necked gourd.
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