2 I o Barrows 07i Birds of the Lower Uruguay. [October 



and thorny twigs of various trees growing in the neighborhood, 

 while the intei'ior is formed of less thorny twigs with some wool 

 and hair. Usually, also, if the material be at hand, a quantity of 

 old, dry horse-droppings is placed loosely on top of the nest and 

 gradually becomes felted into it, rendei-ing it more nearly water- 

 proof. In place of this I have frequently found quantities of bro- 

 ken straw, weed-stalks, twigs, grass, and even chips ; all doubt- 

 less collected from the ridges of drift which the last overflow of 

 the river had left near at hand. So compactly is the whole nest 

 built that it often lasts more than one year, and may sometimes 

 sei've the same pair two successive summers. More often, how- 

 ever, a new nest is built directly above the old one, which serves 

 as a foundation, and occasionally as many as three nests may be 

 seen thus on the same branch-tip, two of them at least being oc- 

 cupied. When other branches of the same tree are similarly 

 loaded, and other trees close at hand also bear the same kind of 

 fruit, the result is very picturesque, yet it is so common that it 

 soon ceases to attract attention, and even among the natives the 

 bird has no distinctive name, being called EspiTiero chico (Little 

 Thorn-bird) or Case7'ito (Little House-builder), names applied 

 indiscriminately to half-a-dozen species. 



The eggs, which are white, are laid from October i to January 

 I, but many of the birds work at nest-building all winter, some- 

 times spending months on a single nest. 



91. Placellodomus ruber {Vieill.) — Nearly twice the size 

 of the preceding, w^hich it much resembles in habits and note. 

 The nest is also quite similar, though never pendent in the same 

 degree. Indeed, it is sometimes built into the main fork of a 

 small tree ; but this is unusual. It is commonly placed either in 

 a clump of bushes, or else on a branch in the same way as with 

 the preceding species, except that the nest does not nod so far, 

 the branch rarely bending below the horizontal. The nest is of 

 about the same size and shape, but is thus placed with its longer 

 axis horizontal instead of vertical, and with the entrance at the 

 end as in the other case. There are commonly two cavities in 

 the nest, one being half open to the weather, and forming the en- 

 trance, the other further back and cortnected with the former by 

 only a short passageway, which in man'y cases is reduced to a 

 simple hole through abroad partition which alone separates them. 

 The nest cavity is thus about on the same level as the entrance, 



