FIREWOOD-GATHERER 225 



sticks. This is a most laborious operation, as the 

 sticks are large and the bird's flight is feeble. If 

 the tree is to its liking, it matters not how much 

 exposed to the winds it may be, or how close to a 

 human habitation, for the bird is utterly unconcerned 

 by the presence of man. I have frequently seen a 

 nest in a shade or ornamental tree within ten yards 

 of the main entrance to a house ; and I have also 

 seen several on the tall upright stakes of a horse- 

 corral, and the birds working quietly, with a herd 

 of half-wild horses rushing round the enclosure 

 beneath them, pursued by the men with lassoes. 

 The bird uses large sticks for building, and drops 

 a great many ; frequently as much fallen material 

 as would fill a barrow lies under the tree. The 

 fallen stick is not picked up again, as the bird could 

 not rise vertically with its load, and is not intelligent 

 enough, I suppose, to recover the fallen stick and to 

 carry it away thirty yards from the tree and then 

 rise obliquely. It consequently goes far afield in 

 quest of a fresh one, and having got one to its liking, 

 carefully takes it up exactly by the middle, and, 

 carrying it like a balancing-pole, returns to the nest, 

 where, if one end happens to hit against a pro- 

 jecting twig, it drops like the first. The bird is not 

 discouraged, but, after a brief interview with its mate, 

 flies cheerfully away to gather more wood. 



Durnford writes wonderingly of the partiality for 

 building in poplar trees shown by this bird in Buenos 

 Ayres, and says that in a tall tree the nest is some- 

 times placed sixty or seventy feet above the ground, 



