2 10 
Barrows on Birds of the Lower Uruguay. 
[October 
and thorny twigs of various trees growing in the neighborhood, 
while the interior 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, rendering 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 
serve 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 Espinero chico (Little 
Thorn-bird) or Caserito (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 ( V/eill .) — Nearly twice the size 
of the preceding, which 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 connected with the former by 
only a short passageway, which in many cases is reduced to a 
simple hole through a broad partition which alone separates them. 
The nest cavity is thus about on the same level as the entrance, 
