202 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



of a neighbour of mine in 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 days, calling incessantly, but there 

 were no other birds of its kind in the place, and it 

 eventually disappeared. Three days later it returned 

 with a new mate, and immediately the two birds 

 began carrying pellets of mud to the oven, with which 

 they plastered up the entrance. Afterwards they 

 built a second oven, using the sepulchre of the dead 

 bird for its foundation, and here they reared their 

 young. My neighbour, 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 house a good omen ; 

 and it was not strange that, after witnessing the 

 entombment of the one that died, he was more con- 

 vinced than ever that the little House-builders are 

 44 pious birds," 



