264 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



was a surprise to find a bird at all, but it was 

 a greater surprise to find the bird a puff bird. 

 Whether this nest cavity, which was 

 about five feet in depth, had been excavated 

 by the puff birds I do not know, as this is the 

 only nest I have ever found of the species, 

 but if the puff bird did construct its own 

 nest cavity, the earth that was removed was 

 carried some distance away lea^•iug no sign 

 of it about the entrance. This however, is 

 perhaps not surprising, for the swallow-wing, 

 another relative of the puff birds, is known to 

 excavate its own nest cavity, digging down 

 sometimes for a couple of feet in the open level 

 prairies, and while doubtless a large amount of 

 dirt and sand are carried out, no accumulation 

 of such material is ever found about the en- 

 trance. There is no doubt that the pile of 

 brush over the entrance to the red-billed puff 

 bird's nest had been placed there by the birds 

 themselves. It was a fine example of how 

 birds sometimes build structures, either to 

 hide their nests or to protect themselves. 



Ni-ls of two sporics of Ihc Ihil-liillcd flycatcher Like the 

 hanfiiiests, these hirds seek I lie |)roleetion of insect neighbors, 

 often suspending their nosis from the tips of the branches of 

 trees infe.sted with stinging or biting ants 



The orioles and hangnests have some very 

 interesting and curious nesting habits. For 

 instance there is one form of white-billed hang- 

 nest that, I believe, always constructs its nest 

 (or nests, as this species builds in colonies) 

 in the immediate neighborhood of, or sur- 

 rounding, the nest of some species of wasp. 

 Year after year the.se colonies increase in size 

 as the wasp nest increases in size, and if 

 through anj^ accident the wasp nest is de- 

 stroyed or abandoned, within a year or two 

 that locality will be abandoned by the hang- 

 nests also. I remember a case in which a col- 

 ony of these birds nested in one place for ten 

 consecutive years. At the end of that time I 

 cut the branch that supported the wasp nest, 

 thus destroying the wasp colony. Three years 

 later, when I visited the locality, there were 

 not more than six pairs of birds in the colony 

 that had previously been tenanted by at 

 least one hundred birds. 



The orioles and hangnests are not the only 

 species of birds that seem to derive protection, 

 or company, from neighborliness 

 with the wasps. Very often I have 

 found nests of tanagers, and also 

 some of the smaller fly-catchers, 

 near those of the wasp. Appar- 

 ently there is never any misunder- 

 standing between the respective 

 tenants of the different colonies, but 

 there is little doubt that should a 

 monkey, for instance, attempt to 

 get into a nest of the colony of hang- 

 nests, it would be very quickly 

 driven away by the insects. 



An instance of a similar protec- 

 tion occurs among the small flat- 

 Ijilled fly-catchers of the genus 

 Todirostrum, which frequently sus- 

 pend ti^eir nests at the ends of twigs 

 or branches inhabited by some of 

 the vicious species of stinging or 

 biting ants. These no doubt furnish 

 protection from any of the bird's 

 enemies that might attempt to creep 

 down the branches, and I have fre- 

 quently had my hands severely 

 stimg by the small irate tenants of 

 such branches. 



