344: HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



BUILDING BIRDS— (Continued). 



Nesting of the Hornbills. — Dr. Livingstone's Account of the Korwe, or Red- 

 ekeasted Hornbill. — The Long-tailed Titmodse. — Its general Habits. — Its 

 Use to the Gardener. — Number of the Young. — Form and Materials of the Nest. — 

 Localities chosen by the Bird. — How to prepare the fragile Eggs. — The Magpie. 

 — Its domed and fortified Nest. — The common Ween and its Nest. — Pseudo-nests 

 and their probable Origin. — The House Wren of America. — Its Habits and 

 Mode of Nesting. — Wilson's Account of the Bird. — Its Usefulness and quarrel- 

 some Nature. — The Lyre Bird. — Origin of its Name. — Its domed Nest. — The 

 Albert's Lyre Bird and its Habits. — The Bower Bird. — Why so called. — 

 Civilization and social Amusement. — The remarkable Bower. — Its Materials and 

 Mode of Construction. — Use to which it is put. — The Bower Birds in the Zoolog- 

 ical Gardens, and their Habits. — Love of Ornament. — Meaning of the scientific 

 Name. — The Spotted Bower Bird of New South Wales. — Its Bower. — De- 

 scription of the Birds, and their place in the present System. 



The reader may remember that in the account of the toucan 

 and its semi-burrowing mode of nesting, it was mentioned that 

 the bird was sometimes in the habit of closing the aperture of its 

 nest with mud. It is a very remarkable fact that both groups 

 of large-billed birds should possess the same habit, and that the 

 Hornbill of Africa should close its nest with mud like the tou- 

 can of tropical America. These groups of birds are somewhat 

 similar in external appearance, the huge beak giving them a kind 

 of family likeness. They are, however, widely distinct in zoolog- 

 ical systems, the toucans belonging to the scansorial, or climbing 

 birds, and the hornbills ranking with the touracos, plantain-eaters, 

 and colies. 



Like the toucan, the Ilornbill makes its nest in the hole of 

 some decaying tree, and one of the species, at all events, seems in- 

 variably to reduce the size of the entrance by plastering it up 

 with mud, and leaving only a very little aperture. The follow- 

 ing interesting account of the Ilornbill and its nest is quoted from 

 Dr. Livingstone's well-known work. 



" We passed through large tracts of Mopane country, and my 

 men caught a great many of the birds called Korwe (Tochis ery- 

 thorhynchus) in their hiding-places, which were in holes in the 



