FIREWOOD-GATHERER 225 
sticks. This is a most laborious operation, as the 
sticks are large and the bird’s flight is feeble. If 
the tree is to its liking, it matters not how much 
exposed to the winds it may be, or how close to a 
human habitation, for the bird is utterly unconcerned 
by the presence of man. I have frequently seen a 
nest in a shade or ornamental tree within ten yards 
of the main entrance to a house; and I have also 
seen several on the tall upright stakes of a horse- 
corral, and the birds working quietly, with a herd 
of half-wild horses rushing round the enclosure 
beneath them, pursued by the men with lassoes. 
The bird uses large sticks for building, and drops 
a great many; frequently as much fallen material 
as would fill a barrow lies under the tree. The 
fallen stick is not picked up again, as the bird could 
not rise vertically with its load, and is not intelligent 
enough, I suppose, to recover the fallen stick and to 
carry it away thirty yards from the tree and then 
rise obliquely. It consequently goes far afield in 
quest of a fresh one, and having got one to its liking, 
carefully takes it up exactly by the middle, and, 
carrying it like a balancing-pole, returns to the nest, 
where, if one end happens to hit against a pro- 
jecting twig, it drops like the first. The bird is not 
discouraged, but, after a brief interview with its mate, 
flies cheerfully away to gather more wood. 
Durnford writes wonderingly of the partiality for 
building in poplar trees shown by this bird in Buenos 
Ayres, and says that in a tall tree the nest is some- 
times placed sixty or seventy feet above the ground, 
P I 
