BELOW this is the nest of the Oven-bird of South America (_Furnarius fuliginosus_), a bird allied to our common creeper. The drawing was taken from a specimen in the British Museum. Like the nest of the Grallina, it is placed upon some horizontal bough, and fixed so firmly that it cannot fall except by being broken to pieces. Not being afraid of man, the Oven-bird often chooses a beam in some outhouse for a resting-place, and has been known to build even on the top of palings. As may be seen by reference to the illustration, the nest is a very conspicuous one, and concealment is almost impossible. As in the Grallina nest, the material is remarkably hard and firm, as indeed is necessary, to allow it to withstand the effects of the rain-torrents which fall during the wet seasons of the year. There is a curious analogy in this nest with many articles of earthenware. Not only among ourselves, but among uncivilised races, earthenware vessels are constructed with partitions, so as to divide one portion from another. If one of these nests be cut open, it will be found to have a sort of partition wall across the interior, rising nearly to the top of the dome, and so dividing it into two parts. The wall also answers another purpose--_i.e._ that of strengthening the entire structure. Within the inner chamber is the real nest, which is lined with a thick layer of feathers, the outer chamber being bare, and, as it is thought, being occupied by the male. * * * * * WE now come to pottery of a more elaborate shape. Both in the Grallina nest and the earthen pot of the Essequibo Indian we have a vessel with a mouth nearly as wide as its greatest diameter, and with a lip which is very slightly turned over. There are, however, many varieties of pottery in which the neck is narrow and long, and the lip is boldly formed. Some examples of this form are given on the right hand of the accompanying illustration. * * * * * ON the left hand are shown some nests of a solitary wasp belonging to the genus Eumenes. It is a British insect, but seems to have been little noticed, except by professed entomologists. It especially haunts heather, and affixes to the stems of the plant its little globular nests, which are made of mud, and shaped as seen in the illustration. Perhaps some of my readers may have seen the “Napier Coffee Machine,” which draws the coffee into a glass globe furnished with a short neck. The globe is shaped exactly like the nest of our Eumenes, and, when I first saw one, I could not remember why its shape was so familiar to me. As is the case with the birds’ nests which have been mentioned, the mud of which the walls are built is of a most tenacious character, and, when dried in the sun, can resist the heaviest rain. The cells are intended as rearing-places for the young, only a single egg being placed in each cell, which is then stocked with small caterpillars by way of food.