10 Idle Days in Patagonia. 
occasionally suspending themselves from the twigs 
head downwards, after the manner of tits. From 
the distance at intervals came the piercing cries of 
the cachalote (Homorus gutturalis) a much larger 
bird, sounding like bursts of hysterical laughter. 
All these Dendrocolaptine birds have an inordinate 
passion for building, and their nests are very much 
larger than small birds usually make. Where they 
are abundant the trees and bushes are sometimes 
laden with their enormous fabrics, so that the 
thought is forced on one that these busy little archi- 
tects do assuredly occupy themselves with a vain 
unprofitable labour. Itis not only the case that 
many a small bird builds a nest as big as a buzzard’s, 
only to contain half a dozen eggs the size of peas, 
which might very comfortably be hatched in a pill- 
box; but frequently, when the nest has been finished, 
the builder sets about demolishing it to get the 
materials for constructing a second nest. One 
very common species, Anumbius acuticaudatus, 
variously called in the vernacular the thorn-bird, 
the woodman, and the firewood-gatherer, sometimes 
makes three nests in the course of a year, each com- 
posed of a good armful of sticks. The woodman’s 
nest is, however, an insignificant structure compared 
with that of the obstreperous cachalote mentioned 
amoment ago. This bird, which is about as large 
as a missel thrush, selects a low thorny bush with 
stout wide-spreading branches, and in the centre of 
it builds a domed nest of sticks, perfectly spherical 
and four or five feet deep. The opening is at the 
