316 
BIRD-LIFE. 
ns singular that certain birds, which we should scarcely 
consider capable of such architectural talent, construct 
nests containing both breeding and other compartments. 
The Brown Heron (Scopus umbretta) builds a gigantic 
nest, five or six feet in diameter, which is divided into 
three distinct compartments: ante-room, store-room, and 
sleeping- or breeding-room. The last, in which the eggs 
are deposited on a layer of soft material, is the largest; 
in the centre apartment provender is stored; and the 
male keeps watch in the ante-room, warning his spouse of 
any danger that may he at hand. In Australia the Bower- 
birds (. Ptilonorhynchus , Chlamydera ) construct play-grounds. 
They form a floor of interlaid twigs and roots of about 
three feet in length, and then fix a row, or fence, of bent 
twigs along either side; the inverted points of these 
form a regular arcade, which is open at either end; all 
sorts of bright-coloured and glittering objects—such as 
shells, pebbles, broken pieces of china, parrot’s feathers, 
&c.—are used to decorate the “ salon.” Some little 
distance from the bower, which is a rendezvous for the 
pair, the true breeding-nest is placed. In connection 
with these superficial sketches of the different nests, 
I have, at the same time, said enough as to the localities 
chosen, and need only add, that birds unwillingly, and 
therefore rarely, change either their place of abode 
or the materials of which they construct their nests, 
although singular exceptions to this rule are sometimes 
to be met with. Thus the Common Whitethroat has 
been known to build in a gooseberry-bush, against the 
side of a shooting-hut which was much frequented. The 
nest of the Crested Lark has been found under the 
metals of a railway; that of the Carrion Crow in a shed ; 
a Teal has been known to breed in a clump of fir trees, 
