are strong enough to hold the weight of a man. The basket-makers form a very large class. The mocking bird and the red-winged blackbird are familiar examples. A family of grosbeaks build a large, basket-like cluster of nests, sometimes as many as 800 in a single group. The weavers include the orioles, etc. The social weavers of Africa join together and build in tree-tops large grass canopies shaped like umbrellas. Among tailors is the bird of India, which usually makes its nests by sewing a dead leaf to a living one, making a sort of pouch, which is filled with fine down. The felt-makers, as the canary bird, build a closely woven nest, arranging the material like the fibre of felt. The nest of the hornbill is a hole in a tree, in which the female is made a prisoner during the period of incubation. She is locked up in the nest, by plastering the entrance, leaving only a small hole through which she is fed by the male. As interesting a bird structure as any is that of the swift, which makes the nest so highly prized by the Chinese, in bird's-nest soup. See Davie: Nests and Eggs of North American Birds; Dugmore: Bird Homes.
Birds-of-Paradise, the name given to an Australasian family of birds of very brilliant and varied plumage, no bird its rival in splendor. The history of the name is interesting. The early voyagers to the Moluccas were shown dried skins of these birds from which the feet and wings had been removed, and for several centuries thereafter, no perfect specimens were seen in Europe. About the year 1600, they came to be known as birds-of-Paradise. One writer of that period tells us that no one has seen these birds alive, for they live in the air, always turning toward the sun, and never alighting on the earth till they die, for they have neither feet nor wings. Even Linnaeus, in 1758, named the largest kind the footless Paradise-bird, as no perfect specimen had been seen in Europe. During 1854-62 Alfred Russel Wallace was in the Malay Archipelago and was the first naturalist to observe these birds in their native haunts. They are now very common in museums, and some kinds are used in triming ladies' hats, certain species having almost been exterminated owing to the milliners. Some are caught in snares, others are shot with blunt arrows by the natives.
There are twenty-five or thirty species of these Paradise-birds, including the great bird-of-Paradise, the largest kind, about eighteen inches from beak to tip of tail, the lesser bird-of-Paradise, etc. The males alone have brilliant and gorgeous plumage; the females are plain. Associated with the more brilliant kinds, in the same family, are the bower birds of Australia and New Guinea. They are all related to the crow-family and vary in size from that of the crow to that of the sparrow. The plumage is not only of great brilliance but also of the richest velvety appearance. In many species there are numerous long tufts of feathers that start from the shoulders and spread out and down in wondrous fashion. These are the prized bird-of-Paradise plumes used by the milliners. The various species show varied gorgeousness; the Paradise Minor is golden above with throat and top of head a metallic green, coppery red below, and with copper-red wings and tail, a great swirl of golden and white plumes completing its splendor; the King Bird is a glossy crimson above, divided by a band of metallic green about the throat from the white below, and has a fan of ashy plumes tipped with emerald. See Wallace: Malay Archipelago.
Birds of Passage are birds which are migratory, passing regularly with the seasons from one climate to another. Birds which breed in the United States and go south in the fall, returning to the north in the spring, are called summer birds of passage; while the wild geese which breed in the Arctic regions and visit the United States in autumn, flying north again in the spring, are winter birds of passage. Most of the migratory birds of the western United States pass the winter in Mexico. Birds of the eastern states winter in the south, West Indies, Central America and even (Bobolinks) in Brazil.
Birkenhead, an English seaport in Cheshire, on the left bank of the Mersey, opposite Liverpool. The population, 130,832. It dates back to the 12th century, but has gained its present importance within recent years. It has several fine parks, one being 180 acres in extent, and a number of public buildings, such as a free library and public baths. In its neighborhood is St. Aidan's College. There is communication across the Mersey by bridge, by ferry and by a railroad tunnel, 1,230 yards long, which was opened in 1886. The docks are united with those of Liverpool. For some years Birkenhead has been noted for its shipbuilding yards, where have been built some of the largest iron ships afloat.
Birmingham (bĕr′mĭng-ŭm), a city in Alabama, founded in 1871 and called the Magic City of the South. It is situated in Jones Valley, from which rises Red Mountain, and is the capital of Jefferson County. It is close to almost inexhaustible supplies of iron ore, coal, limestone and oil, and promises to rival Birmingham, England, and to become the greatest metal-workers' city in America. It has large rolling mills, which manufacture rail and bar iron, plate and sheet iron, steel and rail mills, and by-product plants, factories for making ice, glass, bridges, chains, steel cars, etc. Twenty-five furnaces in or near the city are now engaged in making iron. One company employs 3,500 men and has a capital of nearly $4,-
