186 Wonders of the Bird World 



persistent smell about it, which may either be caused by its 

 particular diet, or it may arise from a secretion provided by 

 nature to protect it from being bitten by the ants, and to 

 force them to vacate their nest when the bird comes to take 

 possession. The first nest I found contained but one egg, 

 probably laid that morning, and the ants were swarming 

 about it and running up and down the bamboo to which it 

 was suspended. Not unlikely, they were moving to other 

 quarters. About the other three nests there was not a 

 single ant, but they had evidently long been appropriated 

 by the intruders, and the original owners had had time to 

 flit. The nests were all in an excellent state of preserva- 

 tion, and did not have the appearance of having been long 

 deserted by the ants. The Woodpeckers had excavated their 

 entrances in the side, and had hollowed out a cup-shaped 

 cavity for their eggs in the middle." On the specimens 

 sent to him by Mr. Gammie, Mr. Hume remarks — "The 

 nest of this species is one of the most remarkable that I 

 have ever seen. From the end of a Mango-branch ants of 

 some species had constructed a huge, nearly globular, nest, 

 about thirteen inches long and eleven in diameter, involving, 

 as those nests commonly do, all the leaves and twigs 

 springing from that part of the branch. The nest is a 

 greyish-brown mass, of a half felt-like, papier-mache-like 

 substance. Into this the Woodpecker has bored a circular 

 entrance about two inches in diameter, and inside it he 

 has scooped out a circular cavity, some five inches in 

 diameter." The ants seem to suffer greatly from the attacks 

 of Woodpeckers in the tropical forests, and I have seen a 

 specimen of a big Thriponax from Burma, in which the tail 

 of the bird was covered with the heads of ants, which had 

 viciously attacked the bird and had not relaxed their hold 

 even in death, though the motion of the bird's tail against 

 the tree had sent their bodies flying. 



Just as the Hoatzin was referred to as a survivor of 



