246 BIRDS' NESTS 



these curious nests. The deserted "ovens," as we 

 have lately pointed out, are used by a variety of 

 other birds for nesting purposes. 



Some of the other nests made by the Wood-hewers 

 are little less extraordinary. Not a few of the 

 most curious are made by certain members of the 

 genus Synallaxis. One of these, Synallaxis phrygano- 

 phila, makes a nest of sticks about twelve inches 

 deep, and from the top to the bottom of this a 

 tubular passage is constructed, similar to a rain-pipe 

 along the wall of a house, and then passing outside 

 slopes upward, and finally terminates several feet 

 from the actual nest. I ought to add that this 

 curious passage is made of fine twigs dexterously 

 interlaced. A Yucatan species, S. erythrothorax, 

 makes an enormous nest of sticks, and varying in 

 size from that of a small pumpkin to that of a 

 barrel. So numerous are these nests in some 

 localities that upwards of two hundred of them have 

 been counted on trees standing within a radius of 

 twenty rods. Sometimes a single tree contains half 

 a dozen nests ; whilst occasionally, as was observed 

 by Mr Burrows, the nests of several species crowd 

 each other out of shape, so closely are they made 

 on the same bush. Another of these species of 

 Synallaxis weaves a small straight tube out of grass 

 open at both ends, the aperture being only large 

 enough to admit a single finger, the parent bird 

 having to pass right through this singular nest 



