REPUBLICANS, the name given by Vaillant, with some propriety, to a kind of birds which were observed in South Africa, both by him and Paterfon, to inhabit apparently the same enormous nest. Cutting one of these nests in pieces with a hatchet, he perceived that the principal and fundamental piece consisted of a mass of strong coarse grass (called by the Hottentots Bosshent's grass), without any mixture, but so compact and firmly knit together as to be impenetrable to the rain. This nucleus is the commencement of the structure; and each bird builds and applies to it its particular nest. But these cells are formed only beneath and around the mass; the upper surface remains void, without, however, being useless; for, as it has a projecting
publi- jection rim, and is a little inclined, it serves to let the
lish. water run off, and preserves each dwelling from the
fidual. rain. Figure to yourself a huge irregular mass, the
summit forming a kind of roof, and all the other parts
of the surface completely covered with cells squeezed
one against another, and you will have a tolerably ac-
curate idea of these singular edifices.
Each cell is three or four inches in diameter, which
is sufficient for the bird. But as they are all in con-
tact with one another through the greater part of the
surface of the mass, they appear to the eye to form but
one building, and are distinguishable from each other
only by a little external aperture, which serves as an
entrance to the nest; and even this is sometimes com-
mon to three different nests, one of which is situated at
the bottom, and the other two at the sides.
The nest which he examined contained 320 inhab-
ited cells, which, supposing a male and female to each,
announce a society of 640 individuals. Such a calcu-
lation, however, would not be exact; for whenever our
author fired at a flock of these birds, he always killed
four times as many females as males. "For the rest
(says he), these birds have nothing very remarkable in
their plumage. It is an uniform brown grey, divers-
ified by a few black spots on the sides, and a large
patch of the same colour on the throat. The male is a
little larger than the female; in other respects they ex-
actly resemble each other."