184 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
his notes in these motions. This song he frequently 
utters in the night, but without leaving his perch; 
and it then has a most pleasing effect, as it is less 
hurried and the notes seem softer and more prolonged 
than when uttered by day. About a week after the 
birds have arrived, when the trees are only beginning 
to display their tender leaves, the nest is commenced. 
Strange to say, the female is the sole builder; for 
she now lays-by her indifferent mien, and the art 
and industry she displays more than compensate for 
the absence of those beauties and accomplishments 
that make her mate so pleasing to the sight and ear. 
The materials of which the nest is composed are 
almost all gathered on trees; they are lichens, webs, 
and thistle-down: and the dexterity and rapidity 
with which they are gathered, the skill with which 
she disposes them, the tireless industry of the little 
bird, who visits her nest a hundred times an hour 
with invisible webs in her bill, are truly interesting 
to the observer. The lichens firmly held together 
with webs, and smoothly disposed with the tops 
outside, give to the nest the colour of the bark it 
is built on. 
After the Churinche’s nest is completed, the 
Bienteveo (Pitangus bolivianus) and the Common 
Cow-bird (Molothrus bonariensis) are the troublers 
of its peace. The first of these sometimes carries off 
the nest bodily to use it as material in building its 
own; the female Cow-bird is ever on the look-out 
for a receptacle for her eggs. Seldom, however, does 
she succeed in gaining admittance to the Churinche’s 
