OVEN-BIRD 



It seeks no concealment, for its wonderful nest l is placed in the 

 most conspicuous situations, on the top of a post, a bare rock or a 

 leafless branch, being a massive structure with strong thick walls, 

 composed of mud mixed with bits of straw or fibres, roughly 



SECTION OF OVEN-BIRD'S NEST. 



globular in form with an upright opening in front whence a 

 partition extends nearly to the back, forming an ante-chamber to 

 the portion which contains the 4 or 5 white eggs, laid on a bed of 

 soft dry grass. The habits of this species have been mentioned 

 by Mr. Darwin (Nat. Voy. chap, v.) and described at some length 

 by Mr. Hudson (Argent. Orn. i. pp. 167-170), beside Durnford (Ibis, 



FURNARIUS. 



^\ 



GEOBATES. 



(After Swainson.) 



GEOSITTA. 



1877, p. 179) and Mr. E. Gibson (op. cit. 1880, pp. 16-18), to say 

 nothing of Burmeister (Syst. Uebers. Th. Brasil. Fogel, iii. pp. 3, 4) 

 and Dorbigny (Voy. Am6r. M6rid. Ois. p. 250). 



Allied to Furnarius are the genera Geobates and Geositta, of. which 



1 Not many figures of this have been given. There is one, such as a child 

 might draw, in Molina's Compendia (tav. 2, Bologna : 1776), and that in a 

 Natural History (iv. p. 113) edited by Duncan is hardly more instructive: 

 Dr. Goldi's figures (Zool. Gart. 1886, pp. 268, 271) are fair. 



