SOME STRANGE NESTS 181 



gether. Another bird which also makes a 

 bold bid for this nest is a yellow finch, but it 

 is not so impudent as the swallows, and has 

 the decency to wait till the oven-builders 

 have done with it. 



Among the Australian birds there are two 

 kinds which may be seen at the Zoo which also 

 build very remarkable mud nests; these are 

 round mud cups, standing up on a branch on 

 which they are plastered. They are made so 

 truly that they look more like the work of 

 human hands than any other bird's nest, 

 and are very like the earthenware nest-pans 

 which fanciers so often use for their pigeons. 

 The builders of these nests, so very much alike 

 in style, are quite different birds ; one of them, 

 the grey struthidea, called " apostle bird " 

 in Australia, is something between a jackdaw 

 and a thrush in appearance, and has a grey 

 plumage with glossy black tail. The name 

 " apostle bird," which is given because the 

 birds go about in flocks of about a dozen or 

 so, is inappropriate as well as irreverent, for 

 they are most rowdy, quarrelsome creatures. 

 This bird is generally on view, but the other 

 feathered potter is much rarer in captivity, 



