DOMED OR ROOFED NESTS 245 



building goes on more or less intermittently from 

 autumn onwards through the winter, as the weather 

 may be favourable for the task. The birds, curiously 

 enough, seem to take little or no pains to conceal 

 their conspicuous nest, placing it indiscriminately on 

 the tops of fences, on masses of rock, amongst trellis 

 work fastened to houses, or even on some exception- 

 ally large cactus, in bushes, or on broad branches 

 of trees. Several nests are occasionally made close 

 together. The nest or "oven" is nearly globular in 

 shape, strong and massive, and made of clay or mud 

 mixed with bits of straw, hair, and fibres. The walls 

 of this mud nest are perhaps an inch in thickness, 

 and when thoroughly baked by the fierce sub-tropical 

 sun become almost as hard as a brick. The whole 

 structure is still further strengthened by peculiarities 

 of its design, consisting of a central wall or partition 

 which rises from the bottom of the nest and reaches 

 nearly to the top of the dome, thus dividing the 

 interior into two chambers. This party wall curves 

 inwards from the entrance nearly to the back, thus 

 leaving a narrow passage into the inner chamber, 

 where the nest is completed by a bed of soft dry 

 grass. The " oven " is about twelve inches in 

 diameter, and often weighs as much as ten pounds. 

 Notwithstanding the elaborate character of these 

 nests, the birds are said to make a new one each 

 season, sometimes doing so on the top of the 

 previous one. Both sexes appear to join in building 



