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WEAVER, JAMES BAIRD (1833- )

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 440 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WEAVER, See also:JAMES See also:BAIRD (1833- ) , See also:American lawyer and See also:political See also:leader, was See also:born at See also:Dayton, See also:Ohio, on the 12th of See also:June 1833. He studied See also:law at See also:Cincinnati, Ohio, and served on the Federal See also:side in the See also:Civil See also:War, becoming See also:colonel in See also:November 1862; he was mustered out in May 1864, and in See also:March 1865 was breveted brigadier-See also:general of See also:volunteers. He was See also:district-See also:attorney for the second Judicial District of See also:Iowa in 1866-187o and an See also:assessor of See also:internal See also:revenue in Iowa in 1863-1873; and was a representative in See also:Congress in 1879-1881 and in 1885-1889, being elected by a Greenback-Democratic See also:fusion. In 188o he was the See also:candidate of the Greenback party for See also:president and received a popular See also:vote of 3o8,578; and in 1892 he was the candidate of the See also:People's party, and received 22 electoral votes and a popular vote of 1,041,021. WEAVER-See also:BIRD, the name' by which a See also:group of between 200 and 300 See also:species are now usually called, from the elaborately interwoven nests that many of them build, some of the structures being of the most marvellous See also:kind. By the older systematists such of these birds as were then known were distributed among the genera Oriolus, Loxia, Emberiza and Fringilla; and it was G. L. See also:Cuvier who in 1817 first brought together these dissevered forms, comprising them in a genus Ploceus. Since his See also:time others have been referred to its neighbourhood, and especially ' First bestowed in this See also:form apparently by J. F. See also:Stephens in 1826 (G. See also:Shaw's Gen.

See also:

Zoology, xiv. pt. i. p 34) ; but in 1782 J. Latham (Synopsis, i, p, 435) had called the ` Troupiale du See also:Senegal " of See also:Buffon the " See also:weever onole," from its See also:habit of entwining the wires of the cage in which it was kept with such See also:vegetable See also:fibres as it could get, and hence in 1788 See also:Gmelin named it Oriolus textor. In 1800 F. M. Daudin used the See also:term " Tisserin" for several species of the Linnaean genus Loxia, and this was adopted some years later by Cuvier as the See also:equivalent of his Ploceus, as mentioned in the See also:text.the genus Vidua with its See also:allies, so as to make of them a sub-See also:family Ploceinae, which in 1847 was raised by J. See also:Cabanis to the See also:rank of a family Ploceidae—a step the propriety of which has since been generally admitted, though the grounds for taking it are such as could not be held valid in any other See also:order' than that of Passeres. The Ploceidae are closely related to the Fringillidae (see See also:FINCH), and are now divided into two sub-families, the Ploceinae and Viduinae, the former chiefly found in See also:Africa and its islands, the latter in the Ethiopian, Australian and See also:Indian regions. Perhaps the most typical Ploceine weaver-bird is Hyphantornis cucullata, an See also:African species, and it is to the Ethiopian Region that by far the greatest number of these birds belong, and in it they seem to attain their maximum of development. They are all small, with, generally speaking, a See also:sparrow-like build; but in richness of colouring the See also:males of some are very conspicuous —glowing in See also:crimson, See also:scarlet or See also:golden-yellow, set off by See also:jet-See also:black, while the See also:females are usually dull in See also:hue. Some species build nests that are not very remarkable, except in being almost invariably domed-others (such as the most typical Indian weaver-bird, Ploceus baya) fabricate singular structures' of closely and uniformly interwoven tendrils or See also:fine roots, that often hang from the bough of a See also:tree over See also:water, and, starting with a solidly wrought rope, open out into a globular chamber, and then See also:contract into a See also:tube several inches in length, through which the birds effect their exit and entrance. But the most wonderful nests of all, and indeed the most wonderful built by birds, are those of the so-called sociable See also:grosbeak, Philhetaerus socius, of Africa. These are composed wholly of grass, and are joined together to the number of 100 or Zoo—indeed 320 are said to have been found in one of these aggregated masses, which usually take the form of a gigantic See also:mushroom,' affording a See also:home and nursery to many pairs of the birds which have been at the trouble of See also:building it.

These nests, however, have been so often described and figured by See also:

South African travellers that there is no need here to dilate longer on their marvels. It may be added that this species of weaver-bird, known to See also:French writers as the Republicain, is of exceptionally dull plumage. The group of widow-birds,' Viduinae, is remarkable for the extraordinary growth of the tail-feathers in the males at the breeding-See also:season. In the largest species, Vidua (sometimes called Chera) progne, the See also:cock-bird, which, with the exception of a scarlet and See also:buff See also:bar on the upper wing-coverts, is wholly black, there is simply a See also:great See also:elongation of the rectrices; but in V. paradisea the form of the tail is quite unique. The See also:middle pair of feathers have the webs greatly widened, and through the twisting of the shafts their inferior surfaces are vertically opposed. These feathers are comparatively See also:short, and end in a See also:hair-like filament. The next pair are produced to the length of about a See also:foot—the bird not being so big as a sparrow—and droop gracefully in the form of a sickle. But this is not all: each has attached to its See also:base a hair-like filament of the same length as the See also:feather, and this filament originally adhered to and ran along the margin of the See also:outer See also:web, only becoming detached when the feather is full grown.' In another species, V. principalis, the middle two pairs of rectrices are equally elongated, but their webs are See also:convex, and the outer pair contains the inner, so that when the margins of the two pairs are applied 2 These differ from those built by some of the ORIOLES (q.v.)and other birds, whose nests may be compared to pensile pockets, while those of these weaver-birds can best be likened to a See also:stocking hung up by the " toe," with the " See also:heel " enlarged to receive the eggs, while See also:access and exit are obtained through the " See also:leg." But at a distance they may often be mistaken for a native hut, with its grass-roof. 4 It' has been ingeniously suggested that this name should be more correctly written Whydah bird—from the See also:place on the See also:West See also:Coast of Africa so named; but See also:Edwards, who in 1745 figured one of the species, states that he was informed that " the Portuguese See also:call this bird the widow, from its See also:colour and See also:long See also:train" (Nat. Hist. Birds, i. p. 86).

6 This curious structure was long ago described by See also:

Brisson (Ornithologie, iii. p. 123), and more recently by See also:Strickland (Contr. See also:Ornithology (185o), pp. 88 and 149, pl. 59). a sort of See also:cylinder is formed.' The females of all the widow-birds differ greatly in See also:appearance from the males, and are generally clothed in a plumage of mottled See also:brown. Usually classed with the weaver-birds is a vast group of small See also:seed-eating forms, often called Spermestinae, but for which Estreldinae would seem to be a more fitting name. These comprehend the numerous species so commonly seen in cages, and known as amadavats, Estrelda amandava, See also:nutmeg-birds, Munia punctularia, See also:wax-bills, Pytelia See also:melba and phoenicoptera, cutthroats, Amadina fasciata, the See also:Java sparrow, Munia oryzivora and many others. Many of these genera are See also:common to Africa and See also:India, and some also to See also:Australia. (A.

End of Article: WEAVER, JAMES BAIRD (1833- )

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