The Woodhewer Famtly. 251 
from its timid shade-loving congeners in another 
direction by becoming a seed and fruit eater. 
Probably the sober and generally protective 
colouring of the tree-creepers, even with the vari- 
ability and adaptiveness displayed in their habits 
superadded, would be insufficient to preserve such 
feeble birds in the struggle of life without the 
further advantage derived from their wonderful 
nests. It has been said of domed nests that they 
are a danger rather than a protection, owing to 
their large size, which makes it easy for carnivor- 
ous species that prey on eggs and young birds to 
find them ; while small open nests are usually well 
concealed. ‘T'bis may be the case with covered nests 
made of soft materials, loosely put together ; but it 
cannot be said of the solid structure the tree-creeper 
builds, and which, as often as not, the bird erects 
in the most conspicuous place it can find, as if, 
writes Azara, it desired all the world to admire its 
work. ‘The annual destruction of adult birds is very 
great—more than double that, I believe, which takes 
place in other passerine families. Their eggs and 
young are, however, practically safe in their great 
elaborate nests or deep burrows, and, as a rule, they 
lay more eggs than other kinds, the full complement 
being seldom less than five in the species 1 am 
acquainted with, while some lay as many as nine. 
Their nests are also made so as to keep out a greater 
pest than their carnivorous or egg-devouring 
enemies—namely, the parasitical starlings (Molo- 
thrus), which are found throughout South America, 
and are excessively abundant and destructive to 
birds’ nests in some districts. In most cases, in the 
