VALLEY OF THE AMAZONS. 
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eggs, streaked in zigzag with dark brown 
lines. The other waders were a snow-white 
heron, another ash-colored, smaller species, 
and a large white stork. The ash-colored 
herons were always in pairs, the white one 
always single, standing quiet and alone on 
the edge of the water, or half hidden in the 
green capim. The trees and bushes were full 
of small warbler-like birds, which it would 
be difficult to characterize separately. To the 
ordinary observer they might seem like the 
small birds of our woods; but there was one 
species among them which attracted my at¬ 
tention by its numbers, and also because it 
builds the most extraordinary nest, consider¬ 
ing the size of the bird itself, that I have ever 
seen. It is known among the country people 
by two names, as the Pedreiro or the Forneiro, 
both names referring, as will be seen, to the 
nature of its habitation. This singular nest 
is built of clay, and is as hard as stone 
( pedra ), while it has the form of the round 
mandioca oven ( forno ) in which the country 
people prepare their farinha, or flour, made 
from the mandioca root. It is about a foot 
in diameter, and stands edgewise upon a 
