160 ART^ISTS AND ARTISANS IN THE FEATHERED WORLD. 



nests are too trifling to be repeated here. Its nest is 

 neither constructed of glue nor magic roots ; it is not 

 thrown on the surface of the water to float about, with 

 its proprietor, at random, but snugly secured from the 

 winds and the weather in the recesses of the earth. If 

 we follow the entrance we notice that the cavity rises 

 towards the rear and has a little gutter on each side in 

 order to let the water flow black which may have adhered 

 to the feathers of the bird. At the end of the burrow 

 we find a spacious, oven-shaped enlargement to accommo- 

 date the nest, which is built from most remarkable ma- 

 terial, fish bones. Here does not the question present 

 itself to your minds — which is more admirable, the 

 strength, perseverance and skill of t^hese birds in burrow- 

 ing during two or three weeks so far into the interior of 

 the ground, or the precaution to arrange these gutters in 

 order to give the incoming water an outlet? 



Other continents have likewise very noteworthy speci- 

 mens of tunnel-building birds. In Australia lives the 

 diamond bird (Pardulotus punctatus), which makes a deep 

 burrow in the face of some bank, usually on the margin 

 of a stream, and builds its nest at the extremity of the 

 hole. Contrary to the usual custom of burrowing birds, 

 this one builds a most neat and elaborately constructed 

 nest in its burrow, the marvel being increased by the 

 evident difficulty of working in the dark. 



In the next division we find skillful artists of an en- 

 tirely different nature — birds which build a real nest, not 

 by weaving or plaiting it, as a good many do, but by do- 

 ing regular masonry. Let us take a look at some of our 

 'bird-masons. There are few persons in this country un- 

 acquainted with the barn swallow (Hirundo hordeorum). 

 Indeed, the whole tribe is so distinguished from the rest 

 of small birds by its sweeping rapidity of flight that 

 the light of heaven itself, the sky, the trees, or any other 

 common objects of nature are not better known than the 



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