542 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
building if one be near, or, if at the roadside, looking towards the road. When the 
structure has assumed the globular form, with only a narrow opening, the wall on 
one side is curved inwards, reaching from the floor to the dome, and at the inner 
extremity an aperture is left to admit the bird to the interior, or second chamber, 
in which the eggs are laid. The interior is lined with dry and soft grass, upon 
which flve white pear-shaped eggs are laid. The oven is a foot or more in diameter, 
and is sometimes very massive, weighing eight or nine lbs., and so strong that, 
unless loosened by the swaying of the branch, it often remains unharmed for two 
or three years. The birds incubate by turns, and when one returns from the 
feeding-grounds, it sings its loud notes, on which the sitting bird rushes forth to 
join in the chorus, and then flies away, the other taking its place on the eggs. The 
young are exceedingly garrulous, and when only half-fledged may be heard practis¬ 
ing trills and duets in their secure oven in shrill tremulous voices, which change to 
the usual hunger-cries of young birds when the parent enters with food. After 
leaving the nest, the old and young birds live for two or three months together, 
only one brood being raised in each year. A new oven is built every year, and 
occasionally a second may be built on the top of the first, when this has been placed 
advantageously, as on a projection and against a wall. A somewhat curious cir¬ 
cumstance occurred at the estancia house of a neighbour of Mr. Hudson at Buenos 
Aires 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 or 
three 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 one that died, he was more convinced than ever that the little 
housebuilders are pious birds.” The plumage of this oven-bird is earthy brown 
above, with a slight reddish tinge; the breast and flanks are pale sandy brown; 
the upper tail-coverts and tail are bright reddish brown. There is no difference in 
the colour of the sexes. 
spine Tails The spine-tails possess a short straight bill, laterally com¬ 
pressed; the wings are very short and much rounded, with the 
primaries scarcely exceeding the inner secondaries; the tail is broad, with the 
shafts rather rigid, and the tips are pointed; while the feet are very large and 
furnished with slender claws. The white-throated spine-tail, like its congener the 
brown-fronted species (Synallaxis frontalis), is a native of the Argentine Republic, 
and Mr. Hudson says is a summer visitant to Buenos Aires; its arrival in spring 
being easily recognised by the utterance of its harsh persistent note, which is 
remarkably strong for so small a bird, reiterated for half an hour at a.time with 
