202 Wonders of the Bird World 



Woodpeckers there are some forms which have soft and 

 rounded tail-feathers like the Wrynecks (lynx), instead of 

 the stiffened and pointed rectrices which are the usual 

 characteristics of the Family, so among the Wood-hewers 

 or Spine-tailed Dendrocolaptidce of South America, there 

 are many species which do not hew wood or have spiny 

 tails. Of these the Oven-bird is one, and the nest which 

 it builds is a very curious structure of mud, placed on the 

 branch of a tree, on the cornice or beam of a house, or 

 even on the roof of the latter. Mr. W. H. Hudson, who 

 passed the best part of his life in the Argentine Republic, 

 has many stories to relate of the Oven-builder, a favourite 

 bird among the natives of Spanish descent, who not only 

 encourage its presence near their domains, but reverence it 

 as a pious bird, which does not work on holy days. The 

 Dendrocolaptidce are not remarkable for their song, and most 

 of them only give forth discordant cries, but such notes as 

 they produce are generally uttered whenever the male and 

 female happen to meet during the day, when they greet 

 each other with much demonstration, and, according to Mr. 

 Hudson, they appear to have a triple note, with the accent 

 on the first and third syllable, much as in the Toledo 

 mentioned below (p. 258). When singing, they stand 

 opposite to each other with their necks outstretched, wings 

 hanging and tails spread, " the first bird trembling with its 

 rapid utterances, the second beating on the branch with 

 its wings." 



The oven is a very substantial structure of mud, and 

 weighs sometimes as much as eight or nine pounds, and 

 the birds build a fresh one every year, sometimes using 

 their old oven as a foundation for the new house. The 

 eggs are white ; and are deposited on a lining of soft dry 

 grass in an interior chamber of the oven. The entrance- 

 hall can be explored by the insertion of a man's hand, but 

 there is even then no way of reaching the eggs owing to 



