208 Wonders of the Bird World 



several nests are sometimes found in close proximity, some 

 of them being accessible, while others are perched at such 

 a height on the rock as to be unapproachable. The nest is 

 often of large size, and is formed of quite a cart-load of 

 sticks. It is so firmly constructed that it will bear the 

 weight of a heavy man : it is repaired year after year and 

 added to, and the birds appear to have considerable ideas 

 of decorating their home, like the Bower-birds of Australia, 

 for Mr. Layard says that he has found brass and bone 

 buttons, bits of crockery, bleached bones, etc. The nest 

 is described by other observers as having three chambers, 

 communicating with each other by a narrow doorway, 

 through which the bird can easily pass its slim body. The 

 eggs, which are three to five in number and white, are laid 

 in the highest portion of the interior of the nest, which 

 is described as the sleeping-chamber. This is plastered 

 with mud inside, and the nest itself is made of water- 

 plants. The middle chamber is supposed to be for the 

 young birds to live in when they leave the nest, and the 

 ante-room is used as a post of observation. 



Among our British birds we have also a deft architect in 

 stick-building in our common Magpie (Pica pica), which 

 builds a domed nest, and some of the smaller European 

 Herons construct an elegant little cradle of sticks ; but most 

 of the Herons' nests composed entirely of twigs and sticks are 

 flat, and form little more than a platform, as is the case with 

 Pigeons. In Argentina, however, there is an extraordinary 

 bird which goes by the name of the Fire-wood Gatherer 

 (Anumbius acuticaudatus), and this bird seems to be one 

 of the most interesting of stick-nest builders. A nest of 

 the Anumbius was presented to the British Museum by the 

 Directors of the Pacific and European Telegraph Company, 

 and not only is it a very compact mass of sticks, but 

 interwoven with the latter are a number of pieces of 

 telegraph-wire. These birds frequently build their nests on 



