634 The Sparrow-like Birds 



a post, and they also frequently build on a cornice or the roof of a house, and 

 sometimes, but rarely, on the ground. The material used is mud, with the 

 addition of horsehair or slender, fibrous rootlets, which make the structure 

 harder and prevent it from cracking. When finished, the structure is shaped 

 outwardly like a baker's oven, only with a deeper and narrower entrance. It 

 is always placed very conspicuously, and with the entrance facing a building, 

 if one be near, or if at a road side, it looks toward the road; the reason for this 

 being, no doubt, that the bird keeps a cautious eye on the movements of people 

 near it while building, and so leaves the nest open and unfinished on that side 

 until the last, and there the entrance is necessarily formed. When the structure 

 has assumed the globular form with only a narrow opening, the wall on one 

 side is curved inward, reaching from the floor to the dome, and at the inner 

 extremity an aperture is left to admit the bird to the interior or second cham- 

 ber, in which the eggs are laid. A man's hand fits easily into the first or en- 

 trance chamber, but cannot be twisted about so as to reach the eggs in the 

 interior cavity, the entrance being so small and high up. The interior is lined 

 with dry, soft grass, and there the pure white, pear-shaped eggs are laid. The 

 oven is a foot or more in diameter, and is sometimes very massive, weighing 

 eight or nine pounds, and so strong that, unless loosened by the swaying of the 

 branch, it often remains unharmed for two or three years. The birds incubate 

 by turns, and when one returns from the feeding grounds, it sings its loud notes, 

 on which the sitting bird rushes forth to join in the joyous chorus, and then 

 flies away, the other taking its place on the eggs. A new oven is built 

 every year, and I have more than once seen a second oven built on top of 

 the first." 



Miners. In a closely allied genus (Geositta), the species of which are known 

 as Miners, the birds excavate a burrow, which in the case of the Common Miner 

 (G. cunicularia) of Argentina and Uruguay is from three to sigc feet long, and 

 terminates in a circular chamber, where on a bed of soft grasses the five eggs 

 are deposited. The Earth Creepers ( Upucerthia) also deposit their eggs in 

 holes in the ground. Another remarkable style of nest is that made by the 

 Firewood Gatherer (Anumbius acuticaudatus}, so named from the great 

 quantity of sticks it brings together. The site of the nest is usually an iso- 

 lated tree in an open situation, and the height above the ground varies up 

 to perhaps sixty or seventy feet. " The nest," Mr. Hudson says, " is 

 about two feet in depth, and from ten to twelve inches in diameter, and 

 rests in an oblique position amongst the branches. The entrance is at the 

 top, and a crooked or spiral passageway leads down to the lower extremity, 

 where the breeding chamber is situated; this is lined with wool and soft grass, 

 and five white eggs are laid." 



Cachalotes. Of the second group we may only mention the Cachalotes 

 (Pseudosizura), large birds, between nine and ten inches long, with very loud, 

 far-reaching voices and an aggressive disposition. Of the nest of the Brown 

 Cachalote (P. lophotes], Mr. Barrows says: "His nest is built entirely of sticks, 

 and many of them of goodly size, frequently as large round as your little finger, 



