THE WOODHEWERS 1719 



or nine pounds, and so strong that, unless loosened by the swaying of the branch, 

 it often remains unharmed for two or three years. The birds incubate by turns, 

 and when one returns from the feeding grounds, it sings its loud notes, on which 

 the sitting bird rushes forth to join in the chorus, and then flies away, the other 

 taking its place on the eggs. The young are exceedingly garrulous, and when only 

 half-fledged may be heard practicing trills and duets in their secure oven in shrill 

 tremulous voices, which change to the usual hunger cries of young birds when 

 the parent enters with food. After leaving the nest, the old and young birds live 

 for two or three months together, only one brood being raised in each year. A new 

 oven is built every year, and occasionally a second may be built on the top of 

 the first, when this has been placed advantageously, as on a projection and against 

 a wall. A somewhat curious circumstance occurred at the estancia house of a 

 neighbor of Mr. Hudson at Buenos Ayres one spring. ' ' A pair of oven birds built 

 their oven on a beam end projecting from the wall of a rancho. One morning 

 one of the birds was found caught in a steel trap placed the evening before for rats, 

 and both of its legs were crushed above the knee. On being liberated, it flew up to 

 and entered the oven, where it bled to death, no doubt, for it did not come out 

 again. Its mate remained two or three days, calling incessantly, but there were no 

 other birds of its kind in the place, and it eventually disappeared. Three days 

 iater it returned with a new mate, and immediately the two birds began carry- 

 ing pellets of mud to the oven, with which they plastered up the entrance. After- 

 ward they built a second oven, using the sepulchre of the dead bird for its founda- 

 tion, and here they reared their young. My neighbor, an old native, had watched 

 the birds from the time the first oven was begun, feeling greatly interested in their 

 diligent ways, and thinking their presence at his home a good omen; and it was not 

 strange that, after witnessing the entombment of one that died, he was more 

 convinced than ever that the little housebuilders are pious birds. ' ' The plumage of 

 this oven bird is earthy brown above, with a slight reddish tinge; the breast 

 and flanks are pale sandy brown; the upper tail coverts and tail are bright reddish 

 brown. There is no difference in the color of the sexes. 



Spine Tails The spine tails P ossess a snort straight bill, laterally compressed; 

 the wings are very short and much rounded, with the primaries 

 scarcely exceeding the inner secondaries; the tail is broad, with the shafts rather 

 rigid, and the tips are pointed; while the feet are very large and furnished with 

 slender claws. The white-throated spine tail, like its congener the brown-fronted 

 species (Synallaxis frontalis] , is a native of the Argentine Republic, and Mr. Hud- 

 son says is a summer visitant to Buenos Ayres; its arrival in spring being easily 

 recognized by the utterance of its harsh persistent note, which is remarkably strong 

 for so small a bird, reiterated for half an hour at a time, with only intervals of a few 

 seconds. The nest is placed in a low thorn bush, sometimes only two or three feet 

 above the ground, and is an oblong structure of sticks twelve or fourteen inches in 

 depth, with the entrance near the top, and reached by a tubular passage made of 

 slender sticks six or seven inches long. From the top of the nest a crooked passage 

 leads to the cavity near the bottom; this is lined with a little fine grass, and nine 

 eggs are laid, pear shaped in form and bluish white in color. The nests are often 



