202 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
of a neighbour of mine in Buenos Ayres one spring. 
A pair of Oven-birds built their oven on a beam-end 
projecting from the wall of a rancho. One morning 
one of the birds was found caught in a steel trap 
placed the evening before for rats, and both of its 
legs were crushed above the knee. On being liberated 
it flew up to and entered the oven, where it bled to 
death, no doubt, for it did not come out again. Its 
mate remained two days, calling incessantly, but there 
were no other birds of its kind in the place, and it 
eventually disappeared. Three days later it returned 
with a new mate, and immediately the two birds 
began carrying pellets of mud to the oven, with which 
they plastered up the entrance. Afterwards they 
built a second oven, using the sepulchre of the dead 
bird for its foundation, and here they reared their 
young. My neighbour, an old native, had watched 
the birds from the time the first oven was begun, 
feeling greatly interested in their diligent ways, and 
thinking their presence at his house a good omen; 
and it was not strange that, after witnessing the 
entombment of the one that died, he was more con- 
vinced than ever that the little House-builders are 
“ pious birds.” 
