are about 250 species of this bird, belonging mainly to Africa. Those outside of Africa inhabit the oriental region and Australia. There are none in New Zealand or America. They are small birds, usually of plain colors, but the males become brightly colored during the breeding season. The nests, while varying greatly in size and solidity, all bespeak remarkable skill in construction. Some of the weavers construct hanging nests, shaped like a pouch and suspended from high, slender branches. They are closely woven and elongated into a tube opening from below. The social weavers of South Africa are the most noteworthy. A number of birds unite in building an umbrella-shaped structure of coarse grass to form a protection for their nests. The individual nests are placed below this roof and open downward. The roof not only sHeds the rain, but enemies like snakes and other animals will slip from it in attempting to get to the nests. As many as 800 or 1,000 nests have been found under a single canopy. Year after year the nests are added to; sometimes they break the branches by which they are supported.
Weaving, the art of making cloth by interlacing threads of any substance, as cotton or wool. The machine employed is a loom, which has been improved from the simple hand-looms of the Egyptians and other ancient nations to the complicated machines used at the present time in weaving silk, cotton, carpets and other woolen goods. The introduction of the power-loom instead of the hand-loom dates back two centuries, the first successful one being the invention of Cartwright in 1784, of which the Jacquard loom is the most important improvement. The process of weaving is seen best in the common mode of darning, where a set of lengthwise threads are first fastened firmly and then crossed by other threads, which are woven in and out by taking up one thread and leaving one. In weaving, the threads are fastened in the loom, as many as are necessary for the width of the goods. This is called the warp. The cross thread is wound on spools or bobbins in a shuttle, and forms the weft or wool. By a movement of the loom the alternate threads are raised and the shuttle passes between the two sets of threads. In hand-looms the shuttle is thrown by hand, but moved by machinery in the power-loom. The raised threads are then lowered and the lower threads raised, and the shuttle returned to the side whence it came, crossing in this way the threads* alternately. The thread in the shuttle is thus carried back and forth, forming the well-known "selvedge" to woven goods. When every other thread is taken up, it is called plain weaving, but there are many varieties introduced, as taking up one thread and leaving two or three etc. The quality of the
threads also varies, making wool goods with cotton or silk warp, velvet with silk or linen warp etc. The colors and figures are sometimes stamped on plain goods, when the "wrong side" will present a plain surface; in other goods they are made in the weaving by the use of colored threads. Consult Watson's Theory and Practice of the Art of Weaving.
Webb, Alexander Stewart, American general and since 1869 president of the College of the City of New York, was bora at New York, Feb. 15, 1835, and graduated in 1855 at West Point, when he entered the United States army, artillery branch. In the Civil War he served in the army of the Potomac, was chief of staff of the fifth corps in the Maryland and Rappahan-nock campaigns, was wounded at Gettysburg, where he commanded a brigade, commanded a division in the Rapidan campaign, and led a brigade at the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania (being severely wounded at the latter), and was chief of staff to General Meade till the close of the war. He subsequently held several important army posts until he retired from the army in 1870, acting also as a professor at West Point, until appointed president of the College of the City of New York. He is the author of a work on McClellan's campaign of 1862, entitled The Peninsula.
Webb City, Mo., situated in Jasper Count/ on the Missouri Pacific and the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad, with electric trolley communication with Joplin (six miles distant). It lies near Carthage and about 160 miles south of Kansas City, and is engaged chiefly as a mining center, with a large number of iron, lead and zinc mining rjlants in and about the city. In the vicinity there also is a fine farming and fruit-growing region. Its institutions embrace, besides public buildings, several banks, newspapers, schools and churches, together with theaters and opera-houses. In addition to the iron-works industry of the city, it has a foundry and machine shop and a flour-mill. Population 11,817.
Weber (vā'bẽr), Karl Maria von, a German composer, was born in Holstein, Dec. 18, 1786. He early showed the musical genius which he inherited from his father. By the time he was 14, he had already composed two operas, the second one, The Forest Maiden, being put on the stage. He held several positions, such as conductor of the opera at Breslau, musical instructor in the family of Duke Louis at Stuttgart, director of the opera at Prague and at Dresden and musical director to the king of Saxony. His work includes operas, symphonies and overtures for the piano, clarionet, oboe, bassoon and violoncello and a large number of songs, among them a series of national songs from Körner's Lyre and Sword, which roused the patriotic
