The Woodhewer Family. 245 
Synallaxis many species have no tubular passage- 
ways attached to their nests. One species—ery- 
throthorax—in Yucatan, makes so large a nest of 
sticks, that the natives do not believe that so small 
a bird can be the builder. They say that when the 
tzapatan begins to sing, all the birds in the forest 
repair to it, each one carrying a stick to add to the 
structure ; only one, a tyrant-bird, brings two sticks, 
one for itself and one for the wrubd% or vulture, that 
bird being considered too large, heavy, and igno- 
rant of architecture to assist personally in the 
work. 
In the southern part of South America, where 
scattered thorn trees grow on a dry soil, these big 
nests are most abundant. ‘There are plains,” Mr. 
Barrows writes, ‘“‘ within two miles of the centre of 
this town (Concepcion, Argentine Republic), where 
I have stood and counted, from one point within a 
radius of twenty rods, over two hundred of these 
curious nests, varying in size from that of a small 
pumpkin to more than the volume of a barrel. 
Often a single tree will contain half a dozen nests 
or more; and, not unfrequently, the nests of several 
different species are seen crowding each other out 
of shape on the same bush or tree.” 
It would be a mistake to think that the widely 
different nesting habits I have mentioned are found 
in different genera. I have just spoken of the big 
stick nests, with or without passage-ways, of the 
Synallaxes, yet the nest of one member of this 
group is simply a small straight tube of woven 
grass, the aperture only large enough to admit the 
middle finger, and open at both ends, so that the 
