264 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS 



hatch her eggs and rear her young in it." An- 

 other species in the same genus (H. lophotis) 

 builds a similarly large nest, outwardly resem- 

 bling a gigantic powder-flask, placed horizontally 

 on the lower branches of a spreading tree. An- 

 other species (Pracellodomus sibilatrix), about 

 the size of a House Sparrow, makes so huge a 

 nest, at the extremity of a horizontal branch, ten 

 or fifteen feet from the ground, that its weight 

 when completed bends the branch down to within 

 a few feet of the earth. Some of the species in 

 the genus Synallaxis also make very curious 

 homes. One of these (S. phryganophila) makes 

 a stick nest about twelve inches deep, from the 

 top to the bottom of which runs a tubular passage 

 of finely interlaced twigs, "like a rain-pipe on 

 the wall of a house," and then, passing outside, 

 slopes upward, and finally terminates some two 

 or three feet from the actual nest. Another 

 species (the S. erythrothorax, of Yucatan) makes 

 so large a nest of sticks, that the natives believe 

 the builders are assisted by all the birds in the 

 forest. In some parts of South America these 

 nests are very abundant, upwards of two hun- 

 dred of them having been counted, varying in 

 size from a small pumpkin to a barrel, in thorn 

 trees within an area of twenty rods, some of the 



