WEAVER
\wˈiːvə], \wˈiːvə], \w_ˈiː_v_ə]\
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By William Dodge Lewis, Edgar Arthur Singer
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One who weaves: one whose occupation is to weave. “Weavers were supposed to be generally good singers. Their trade, being sedentary, they had an opportunity of practicing, and sometimes in parts. Many of the weavers in Queen Elizabeth's days were Flemish Calvinists, who fled from the persecution of the Duke of Alva, and were therefore particularly given to singing psalms. Hence the exclamation of Falstaff.†“I would I were a weaver! I could sing psalms, and all manner of songs.â€-Nares: the name Weaver-Bird is given to insessorial birds of various genera. They are so called from the remarkable structure of their nests, which are woven in a very wonderful manner of various vegetable substances. Some species build their nests separate and singly, and hang them from slender branches of trees and shrubs, but others build in companies, numerous nests suspended from the branches of a tree being under one roof, though each one forms a separate compartment and has a separate entrance. They are natives of the warmer parts of Asia, of Africa, and of Australia, none being found in Europe of America. The ploceus icterocephalus, or yellow crowned weaver, is native of South Africa, and constructs and isolated pensile kidney-shaped nest, about 7 inches long by 4 1/2 broad, with an opening in the side. Naturalists are not quite agreed as to whether the nests of the weaver-bird are built in their own peculiar manner as a means of preservation against the rain, or against the attacks of serpents and small quadrupeds, probably the latter.
By Daniel Lyons