Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1885 — Illuminated Nest of the Baya. [ARTICLE]

Illuminated Nest of the Baya.

The nest is in itself a beautiful and ingenious piece of work. The upper portion is divided into two chambers, one for Mother Baya while she is sitting, and one for Father Baya when he has earned the right to rest by having provided his wife with food. The lower portion of the nest is a general living room for the whole family as soon as the little ones have grown strong enough to leave the upper chamber. Here is a home that might well be all that the most exacting could require, but having provided for creature coipfort the_baya has yet to gratify its sense of the beautiful. The little mother is hardly settled down when the male bird, having put the finishing touches to the nest, darts forth and returns with a fresh lump of clay, which he affixes to the inner wall of the nest. Then quickly away again to capture one of the living sparks of which there are myriads in the tropics. The fire-fly is secured to the lump of clay, and lights up the little home with its phosphorescent glow. Another and another are added, until the patient little mother has light enough to cheer her during the long dark night. After that one or more of the animated diamonds are fastened to the exterior,there to glitter and flash for the. delectation of the outside world, for the baya is no selfish lover of art. He does not lock his treasures up in his gallery, but is willing to share his enjovment with all. And what pleasure he does give can be easily comprehended by a slight es-. fort of the imagination, which has only to picture a quaint little hut with overhanging eaves nestling in the gloom of a tangled tropical forest. From the eaves gently wave the gayly illuminated bird-nest lanterns, shedding a ■oft, .happy home light on the poor little cottage, which loses its wretchedness for the, time being, and is transformed into a fairy palace— J. C. Beard, in Harper’s Magazine.