The Biggest Bird's-Nest 



I 



the nest-building was to be expected; yet in 

 fact the architecture of this bird is very curious 

 indeed. Instead of a scanty platform of loosely 

 entangled sticks on some limb or bush-top, as 

 is the custom of most storks and ibises, the 

 hammer-head constructs an astonishingly large 

 and elaborate home for its family. It is a huge 

 composition of weeds, sticks, etc., placed in a 

 fork of a large, low tree, or sometimes in a rocky 

 cleft, and one examined by Layard measured 

 three yards long by a yard and a half across. 

 It is ordinarily flat on top, as figured by Holub 

 and Penzeln in their great work on South- 

 African birds, and its roof will easily bear a 

 man's weight. 



This massive bird's nest is entered by a hole 

 in one side, only large enough to admit the 

 owner, and contains three chambers, connected 

 by small openings, and lined with grass and 

 weed-stems mixed with clay. " The sleeping 

 chamber occupies the highest portion of the 

 nest, in order to be safe from floods, and in it, 

 upon a bed of water-plants, are laid the white 

 eggs, which are from three to five in number, 

 ^233 &* 



