SOME CURIOUS NESTS. 



Nature has performed some odd freaks in 

 the way of architecture, and it has seemed to 

 me that a description of some of the most 

 curious bird nurseries in various parts of the 

 world would be interesting to my readers. 



In this country we have a little ovenbird, 

 which makes a grassy ball on the ground 

 among the leaves or weeds, with a small hole 

 at the side for a door. But in South America 

 there is an ovenbird which has a still clearer 

 title to the name, for it makes an oven of clay, 

 and places it on trees or window sills, so that 

 the under side is flat, while the upper part is 

 round like a mound. At one side there is a 

 small doorway, like the entrance to an Eskimo 

 hut ; and, still stranger than all, the interior is 

 divided by a partition into two rooms, in one 

 of which the female lays her eggs and rears 

 her young. In building the nest the birds 

 bring their material in little mud balls, which 

 they work into the walls. They are quite 



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