248 BIRDS' NESTS 



sloping position on a tree or bush often over water, 

 making it of twigs, and lining it with hair, roots, 

 and feathers. It resembles a wide-mouthed bottle 

 in shape, and consists of two separate chambers, an 

 inner and an outer one. Then in the genus Homorus 

 we are introduced to another model, the Homorus 

 lophotis, making a big nest, in shape resembling a 

 gigantic flask. This is also placed in a horizontal 

 position amongst the lower spreading branches of 

 trees. Another member of this genus, Homorus 

 gutturalis, forms a monstrous domed or roofed nest 

 of sticks, so big, that if the dome were removed, a 

 condor (one of the largest of known birds) could 

 incubate her eggs and rear her young in it. Lastly, 

 we may mention one example from yet another genus 

 of these remarkable architects. This is the Pracello- 

 domus sibilatrix, which builds so huge a nest, at the 

 extremity of a horizontal branch ten or fifteen feet 

 from the ground, that its weight when completed 

 bends the branch down to within a few feet of the 

 earth. 



Our last instances of domed nest-builders are drawn 

 from the small group of South American Wren-like 

 birds associated in the family Pteroptochid^. But 

 little appears to have been recorded respecting the 

 nidification of these somewhat isolated and aberrant 

 species ; but some of them are known to build domed 

 nests of grass and fibres, others breed in burrows, 

 whilst some make an open type of nest with sticks. 



