486 PASSERIFORMES CHAP. 
insects and their larvae are sought upon the ground, and both 
sexes incubate, the pairs keeping together throughout the year. 
The curious nest (Fig. 105) is placed in exposed situations on 
branches, in forks of trees or shrubs, on posts, rocks, or house- 
roofs; 1t has thick walls, almost unbreakable when dry, of clayey 
mud and dung mixed with a little hair or dry grass, a lining of 
the same materials underlying the three to five white eggs. This 
massive structure has an inner chamber with -an outer passage 
running partly round it, and is generally the work of several 
months, the materials being only procurable in damp weather. 
The above refers at least to Furnarius cinnamomeus, F. minor, 
and F. rufus (the “ Hornero” or Baker); but White’ states that 
F. figulus builds a stick nest, and E. Bartlett? that / torridus 
deposits four creamy white eggs on twigs and bents in holes in 
banks. Upueerthia, resembling Geositta in general habits, ranges 
to an altitude of nine thousand feet. The lvely Cinclodes recalls 
both the Wheatear and the Dipper, as it runs with upturned tail 
from stone to stone, takes short, low flights, or hunts for crusta- 
ceans, molluscs, and insects in the water, equally happy on the 
streams of the Andes, or the desolate lake-sides of Patagonia. The 
note is a sharp trill, while three white eggs are laid on a bed of 
grass and fur in holes.  Sc/erwrus frequents damp forests, scratch- 
ing among the leaves, and crouching, when startled, on some trunk. 
Phloeocryptes flies weakly, but hops actively about reed-beds in 
pursuit of flies, uttering reiterated grating notes; it attaches its 
Wren-like nest of grass or rushes and mud, lined with feathers, 
moss and hair, to a few of the reed-stems, and builds a projection 
over the entrance. The two or three oval eggs are glossy blue. The 
shrill-voiced Leptasthenura clings to the branches in search of insects 
like a Tit, and lays from three to six pointed white eggs on soft 
materials in holes in trees, sometimes utilizing nests of Furnarius 
rufus, Siptornis sordida, and other species. Synallaais, usually seen 
in pairs searching for food upon the bushes, has a persistent harsh 
double call or a cat-like ery ; it forms a loose, oval structure, which 
would fill an ordinary wheel-barrow, of thorny sticks and twigs in 
forks of trees, lining it with hair, feathers, woolly leaves,and the like, 
and often capping it with more leaves. This generally possesses a 
lower chamber connected by a vertical or horizontal passage with 
the entrance, itself protected by a tubular fabric; while more than 
1 P.Z.§. 1882, p. 609. 2 Op. cit. 1873, p. 268. 
