weaverbird

Ornith.: A popular name for any species of the family Ploceide (q. v.) Both the scientific and names of these birds have reference to the remarkable structure of their nests. The Weaverbirds are large finches, with somewhat elongated bodies, moderate wings, long tails, and very bright coats, the latter often varied in the breeding season. Yellow and yellowish-red are the prevailing tints, but species occur in which black, red, white, or gray predominates. The Weaver-birds are extremely social, and many of the species live in large colonies during the period of incubation. The nests of the various species differ considerably in shape and general structure, some (as the genus Oriolinus), building a separate nest for the male, while the female sits in another on her eggs, till relieved by her mate; others again contain Mahali Weaver more than one chamber, as that bird and Nest. of the Golden Weaver-bird, Plo ceus galbula ; while the Social Weaver-birds, Plo ceus or Philæterus socius , construct an umbrella-like roof, under which from 800 to 1,000 separate nests have been found. But in all cases fibers, slender twigs, or blades of gra are the materials employed, the whole being tightly woven, after having been rendered more flexible and adhesive by the application of saliva. The nests themselves consist of a more or le globular portion, elongated into a tube below, with the entrance at the bottom or at the side. They are very generally suspended at the extremities of branches, and often over water, probably as affording security against monkeys, snakes, and other antiquity. The frame or apparatus on which cloth is woven is termed a loom (q. v.). In all kinds of weaving, whether plain or figured, one system of threads, called the woof or weft, is made to pa alternately under and over another system of threads called the warp, web, or chain. The e ential operation of weaving is the succe ive raising of certain threads of the warp, and the depre ion of others for the reception of the weftshot. This operation is called shedding. The web, which is of any convenient length, is kept stretched between two parallel beams, fixed horizontally between upright standards. The one beam, on which the warp is wound, is called the yarn-roll, and the other on which the cloth is wound, the cloth-beam or roll. The weft-shot is introduced or carried through the shed by the shuttle. Weaving is performed by hand on hand-looms, and by steam or other motive power on power-looms. In its most general sense, the term comprehends not only the making of those textile fabrics prepared in the loom, but also net-work, lacework, . Where the color of the yarn in warp and weft is the same, the proce is called plain weaving, and the result is a fabric of uniform color, in which the warp and weft threads regularly interlace. Pattern weaving consists either in using different colors in warp or weft or in both, or in weaving with more complicated machines, or in combining both variations. Double weaving consists in weaving two webs simultaneously one above the other, and interweaving the two at intervals so as to form a double cloth. Kidder minster or Scotch carpeting is the chief example of this proce . Pile weaving is the proce by which fabrics like velvet, velveteen, corduroy, and Turkish carpets are produced. [Loom (1), JACQUARD.] Though skins of animals formed the chief clothing material in the Stone Age, yet the arts of spinning and weaving were practiced, spindle whorls and fabrics (the material is flax, hemp being unknown) having been found in the Swi lake dwellings of that period. The art of weaving seems to have existed in China and in India from a remote period of antiquity. It is also represented in sculp ture on the Egyptian monuments at Thebes. Women, many of them slaves or devotees attached to tem ples, wove fabrics in Greece and Rome, while in Egypt the work was performed by men. The primeval looms were everywhere rude, but the Hindus, with humble machines, turn out excellent In 1132 and 1331 continental weavers settled in Eng. land. In 1738, Mr. Charles Wyatt, of Birmingham, and Mr. Lewis Paul, a foreigner with whom he was in partnership, took out a patent for spinning by means of rollers, as did Ark wright in 1769. The first power loom for cotton-weaving was established in Glasgow in 1798. In 1801, Jacquard exhibited in Paris the loom called after him. In 1809, John Heath coat, a stocking-weaver, invented the bobbin net machine. weaz-en, adj . [A. S. wisnian = to become dry; Icel. visna = to wither, from visinn = withered, palsied, dried up; Dan. & Sw. vi en = withered: Sw. vi nato fade; O. H. Ger. wesaren =to dry.] Thin, lean, wizened, withered. "His shadowy figure and dark weazen face."- Irving : Sketch -Book; Christmas Dinner. weazen-faced, a . Wizen-faced, withered. was opened, and a little blear-eyed, "The door Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xi. weazen-faced ancient man came creeping out." - Dickens: