220 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



painfully with his clumsy bill to enlarge it to the required size. Then 

 the female prepares to lay her eggs, and both mates plaster up the 

 entrance, the female working from the inside, the male from the 

 outside, until all is closed up save an opening large enough for the 

 female to force her bill through. Shut off from the outer world 

 in this isolated brooding-chamber, the female sits on her eggs, and 

 the male has to feed not only his imprisoned mate, but later the 

 quickly -growing ever hungry young ones, which remain in captivity 

 until they are fully fledged. Then the mother breaks open the 

 entrance from within, and the whole family emerges to the world 

 fat and in good feather, thereby relieving from further toil the hus- 

 band and father, who is reduced to a skeleton with the labour and 

 anxiety of filling so many mouths. 51 



Similar conjugal and paternal tenderness is exhibited by the 

 umber-bird, a stork-like bird about the size of a raven, which leads 

 a quiet, nocturnal life in the forest, and builds an enormous nest, one 

 of the most remarkable built by any bird. These nests are usually 

 placed at but a short distance from the ground, in forks of the trunk, 

 or on any thick boughs of the lower part of the crown that are strong 

 enough to bear them; for they exceed the nests of the largest birds 

 of prey in circumference and weight, being often from one and a 

 half to two yards in diameter and not much less in height, and con- 

 sisting of fairly thick branches and twigs, which are neatly stuck 

 together or mortared with clay. If one does not happen to notice 

 how the umber-bird slips out and in one would never imagine that 

 these structures were hollow, but would rather take them for the 

 eyrie of a bird of prey, especially as eagles and horned owls fre- 

 quently nest on the top of them. But when one has seen the real 

 owner enter, and has inspected the nest closely, one finds that the 

 interior is divided into three compartments, connected by holes 

 which serve as doors, and further observation reveals that these three 

 compartments answer the purpose of hall, reception or dining room, 

 and brooding-chamber. This last room, the farthest back, is slightly 

 higher than the rest, so that if any water should get in it can flow 

 away; but the whole structure is so excellently built that even 

 heavy and long-continuing showers of rain do very little damage. 



