FAMILY CARES— BUILDING THE HOME. 137 



pieces of sticks and straw. In shape it some- 

 what resembles a squat bee-hive, or, as some say, 

 an oven. The opening into this hive is large ; 

 inside, it is divided by a partition reaching 

 nearly to the roof, and forming a passage or 

 ante-chamber to the large chamber containing 

 the eggs which are laid upon a bed of soft 

 dry grass. We cannot but be struck with the 

 industry and labour which must be expended 

 in the construction of so large a nest, by so 

 small a bird. The collection of the mud alone 

 must impress us, when we recollect that the 

 workman has nothing but a tiny beak to carry 

 it in, so that it must be carried a pellet at a 

 time, and a small pellet too ! 



We must now turn our attention to nests of 

 a more complex character than any yet examined. 

 They are made up of small blades of grass, 

 roots, leaves, or sticks, they are sometimes 

 objects of rare beauty, sometimes little more 

 than slovenly piles of sticks, etc. The sites 

 chosen for these vary as greatly as do the nests 

 themselves. They occur on the ground, in 

 thickets, or on the tops of the highest trees. 

 Some rest upon branches, some are swung in the 

 most perfect manner, hammock-wise beneath the 

 boughs. Some are gems of the most exquisite 

 beauty, some loosely made and untidy in the ex- 

 treme ; some are open to the sky ; some domed ; 

 some hang like retorts, mouth downwards. It 

 will be impossible to do more than take a hasty 

 survey of some of the most important of them in 

 this little work. 



These nests are of the same kind as those 



