Linda Colwell, age 12, of Boise, Idaho, for her question:

How did the weaverbird get its name?

Almost all the little birds of this family have excellent reputations. They are neat and hard working, good homemakers and housekeepers. They are friendly and considerate to their neighbors in the bird world. But there are a few black sheep of the weaverbird family who do not have these splendid qualities.

All the weaverbirds are classified in the Ploceidae family, a name coined from an older word meaning braider. In weaving and braiding, of course, strands of material are twisted and meshed together to make fabric, and you might expect the weaverbird to be a maker of textiles. This is true of most birds that belong to the Ploceidae family. The fabrics they weave of sticks and strings, twigs and grasses are nest building materials. The weaverbirds are named for their excellent weaving skills.

In the New World, we know only a couple of the black sheep of the weaverbird family. The shaggy, scrappy house sparrow is a weaverbird with none of the family's artistic talent for nest building or good behavior. Certain cuckoo birds also are of the weaverbird family and these fellows are too lazy to build even a nest of their awn. But the Old World weaverbirds of the tropics rate among the best of all nest builders.

They are smallish birds that look somewhat like the house Sparrow. Several species build flask shaped nests of tightly woven grasses. The nest hangs from a high branch and on one side of it there is a graceful spout that acts as a sheltered doorway. Weaverbirds, however, are more sociable than most birds and many of them build nesting apartment houses.

In Africa, couples of the social weaverbird team together to build a massive community nest, high in a lonely grassland tree. Everyone gathers grass and straw and helps to weave a single, thick canopy. Under this shelter, the busy birds weave walls and tunnels. Each tunnel leads straight up and opens into a roomy nest just below the roof. The African buffalo weaverbirds build their apartment houses of thorns, neatly woven together to avoid scratching their precious offspring. This bulky, well made community nest has doors on all sides so that the devoted parents can keep watch in all directions.

The weaverbirds of the Old World tropics were named for the splendid nest they weave, and they certainly deserve their family name. A few also use their weaving talents to build playpens and artistic bowers. Like their disreputable cousin, the house sparrow, all the industrious weaverbirds are seedeaters. Their stubby little bills are just right for cracking hard seeds of weeds. Sad to say, flocks of hungry weaverbirds often raid farmlands, causing havoc in the grain fields of the tropics.