"JOHNNY CLAY" 



hollows of trees, they are placed without any regular order 

 in clusters of about thirty or forty together, some with the 

 spouts inclining downwards, others at right angles, etc. ; 

 they are lined with feathers and fine grasses." The eggs are 

 usually four or five in number, and marked with red spots 

 or blotches upon a white ground ; sometimes, however, they 

 are pure white. 



Quite the most remarkable example of bird masonry is 

 that produced by the famous Oven-bird (Furnarius rufus\ 

 one of the cleverest members of a talented family to which 

 we have already had occasion to refer in a previous chapter. 

 The oven-birds are natives of South America, and they build 

 nests which are both unique in architecture and in solidity 

 of construction. Burmeister says ; " When we have passed 

 the lofty mountain chains which divide the vast coast forests 

 of Brazil from the plains of the campos, and descend the 

 hills of the Rio des Velhas valley, there on all sides one 

 notices in the great trees which stand solitary in the neigh- 

 bourhood of dwellings, large melon-shaped masses of earth 

 on the stout spreading branches. Their appearance is 

 striking. You might take them to be the nests of termites ; 

 but then, they have an opening in one side, and they are all 

 of one size, and shaped alike, while the constructions of 

 termites are irregular in form and are never placed freely on 

 a branch, but always at a point where it is forked. We sbon 

 find out, however, what is the true nature of these heaps of 

 earth ; we recognize the large oval aperture at the side, and 

 presently we may see going in and out a little bird with 

 warm brown plumage ; it is in fact a bird's nest, that of 

 the oven-bird, known to every native by the name of 

 4 Johnny Clay,' Jodo de barro" 



The Brazilians look upon the oven-bird as sacred. Accord- 

 ing to them it has a religious sense, because, they say, it 



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