File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972933568).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo16amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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STOBIES OF SOUTH AMERICAN BIRDS 2(il great gniss nests of tlie yellow-bieasted Hy- eatchers in the tops of the low trees. One of the most interesting South American nests I have found is that of the two-banded Bucco or puff bird. This species has the ex- traor(Hnary haljit of excavating into occupied nests of the common termite, or white ant, of the region (whose nests are so conspicuous in many of the forest trees). The Bucco usually makes the entrance to its nest in the middle of the side of the termite nest, the tunnel jiassing backward and upward for nearly the entire diameter of the termite dwelling, and ending in a slightly enlarged spherical chamber about fifteen centimeters in diameter — the entrance tunnel being only about one-half that width. No nesting ma- terial is carried in, th(> eggs being deposited on the debris at the bottom of the nest cavity. It has always been a mystery to me how the birds were able to carry on their work of ex- cavation, because termites, at the slightest disturbance, swarm out in countless thou- sands, and I cannot conceive how any living object could endure being covered by these viciously biting little insects. Another prob- lem I have not been able to solve is how the yoimg birds, particularly immediately after being hatched, could possibly survive. No less curious ai"e the bed-fellows some of the jacamars have in their nests. Somewhat kingfisher-like in form, but decidedly more like humming birds in plumage, the jacamars construct their nests after the manner of the kingfishers, that is by excavating a hole in the bank of a stream, or in an embankment of any sort, carrying their tunnel back for a distance of about a yard from its entrance, and usually slanting it slightly upward so that water is prevented from running down into the cavity and accumulating there. No soft lining is taken into these nests, but great quantities of beetles and other insects are deposited around the eggs after they have been laid, or the eggs are deposited on the insect mass after it has been taken in. After the insect mass has remained for some time in the nest cavity, flies are attracted by the decaying bodies. As a result maggots develop, and I have found the eggs resting on a squirm- ing, writhing mass of maggots! There are many natural history problems here pre- sented. Does the parent jacamar incubate the eggs sitting on the top of this mass of maggots, or is the heat from this writhing mass sufficient to induce incubation? If the;
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Nest of broad-billed yellow flycatcher. Brown, black, and gray nests of this species were found, seeming to indicate exercise of individual taste by Iheir builders.— Nest of fox-red spinetail in a mass of drift grass; unlike nests of other spinetail species

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