50 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



When captured the pouched gopher does not care 

 to live any longer — that is, provided he can not escape, 

 which he is very likely to do unless fastened in some 

 place where even his sharp, strong teeth can not gnaw 

 his way out. He then becomes sullen and unman- 

 ageable, and so ugly and quarrelsome that he will 

 fight to the death either with a comrade in captivity 

 or any living creature that is shut up with him. " Lib- 

 erty or death" is the watchword of the whole pouched 

 gopher tribe. 



THE DIAMOND BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



A BEAUTIFUL NEST IN A HOLE IN THE GROUND. 



Most birds that burrow are content with very 

 little in the way of a nest ; even a few tufts of grass 

 or feathers, or dried leaves, are often dispensed with ; 

 but the diamond bird, well named to suggest the 

 brilliancy of its plumage — though one would scarcely 

 expect such a bird to have a nest anywhere but in 

 the tree, perhaps in the hollow of a tree, certainly not 

 in a hole in the ground — digs galleries two or three 

 feet long, at the end of which it hollows out a cham- 

 ber to contain its nest — a chamber that is the wonder 

 of any one who sees it. The entrance is only sufii- 

 ciently large to allow the little creature to pass through 

 it ; and she is only three and a half inches long, tail and 

 all, but the farther end of the hole is raised so that the 

 rain can not come in, and enlarged to three inches in di- 



