184 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



his notes in these motions. This song he frequently 

 utters in the night, but without leaving his perch ; 

 and it then has a most pleasing effect, as it is less 

 hurried and the notes seem softer and more prolonged 

 than when uttered by day. About a week after the 

 birds have arrived, when the trees are only beginning 

 to display their tender leaves, the nest is commenced. 

 Strange to say, the female is the sole builder; for 

 she now lays-by her indifferent mien, and the art 

 and industry she displays more than compensate for 

 the absence of those beauties and accomplishments 

 that make her mate so pleasing to the sight and ear. 

 The materials of which the nest is composed are 

 almost all gathered on trees ; they are lichens, webs, 

 and thistle-down : and the dexterity and rapidity 

 with which they are gathered, the skill with which 

 she disposes them, the tireless industry of the little 

 bird, who visits her nest a hundred times an hour 

 with invisible webs in her bill, are truly interesting 

 to the observer. The lichens firmly held together 

 with webs, and smoothly disposed with the tops 

 outside, give to the nest the colour of the bark it 

 is built on. 



After the Churinche's nest is completed, the 

 Bienteveo (Pitangus bolivianos) and the Common 

 Cow-bird (Molothrus bonariensis) are the troublers 

 of its peace. The first of these sometimes carries off 

 the nest bodily to use it as material in building its 

 own ; the female Cow-bird is ever on the look-out 

 for a receptacle for her eggs. Seldom, however, does 

 she succeed in gaining admittance to the Churinche's 



