Animal Masons.

Otago Witness, Issue 2665, 12 April 1905, Page 76

Animal Masons.

If the fraternity of the Ancient Order of Freemasons chose tc add a crest to the many bearings which it emblazons among its insignia, the claims of a very remarkable little bird to that honour are worthy of consideration. It is the black wheat-ear, which crosses the Straits of Gibraltar in the spring to nest among the rocks and stones of the south Spanish province?.

. . . The Spaniards near Malaga call this bird the pedrero, or " stonemason," from its peculiar taste in nest-building. The common wheat-ear usually builds in a rab-bit-hole. Several of them have nested lately in the open warren in Richmond Park. The black wheat-ear sometimes builds in a deep crevice in a cliff ; but more ofton it chooses a low excavation, or horizontal cleft, or low cave, and there sets to work with tremendous energy to make a stone foundation for its house and a stone wall around or in front ef it. Technically speaking, the pedrero is not so much a mason as what is called in Yorkshire a " dry diker "' ; that is, he uses no mortar in his job, though some other birds can mix mortar io dry to any degree of hardness. In the Boa-r war the " dry dilrers " of a certain East Yorkshire regiment used to be asked to volunteer to bi>ild " sanga>*s," those being practically the same as the dry stone walls of the north. If Aristophanes had been acquainted with the black wheatcar's accomplishment, he would no doubt have assigned to it the business of building the walls round the City of the Birds when about to establish Their league between tin* realms of the sods «nd the inhabitants of men. . . Foundations of. m-psonry of one. kind or another are quite common, even among English birds. The ringed plover, which practically makes no nest, always lays a foundation of broken shells or little stones, on which the four eggs are placed. It commonly scatters a few broken shells round it too, even if the nest is made xtpon the grass or on sand. The blackbird and the magpie, as well as the carrion crow, sometimes build a foundation of mud, which hardens into a kind of mortar, for their nest, the blackbird also working this mud into a cup, which is subsequently lined. The material is usually taken from the nearest ditch. The thrush, on the other

hand, makes s v-pry careful " compost " of ccv. -dung and lotten wood, smooths Ihis into a p-crfect bowl, and lays its eggs directly on thi^ extremely clean, hard, and light lining. . . Both birds seem to understand the art of mixing their building n'sterial into a uniform substance. The swallow -,, and hou^e-martins, on the other hand, build by sticking together pellets of picpared road-mud Most of the material is obtained from the drying puddles en trie high roads. Clearly, if not; mixed with anything else, the tendency of these petlets would be to crumble when dry. But the swallow tribe are supplied with a mucous secretion which enables them to gum the particles together. The swallows' ntsis f ro n which the Chinese " birds-nest soup "' is made are constructed of this mucous matter only; while an Indian swift which builds little bcat-=hdpecl nests against the trunks of lofty tr^cs practically makes them of dried saliva. Th© best mason among' th© birds of the New World is a potter as well. It is the oven bird of the Pampas. It is called the casara. or housebuilder, by the Spaniards. The nest is made of mud and bits of straw, practically the same as the material v.=ed for mest bu'ldings in Mexico. The walls arc vei-y thidk, and there is a partition wall inside, reaching so high ac to form an antecl.amber. — Spectator.