Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1910 — Bird’s Barbed Wire Fences. [ARTICLE]

Bird’s Barbed Wire Fences.

There may be seen along the roadsides in Central America a brown wren about the size of a canary which builds a nest out of all proportion to its apparent needs. It selects a small tree with horizontal branches growing close together. Across two of its branches it lays sticks fastened together with -tough fiber, until a platform about six feet long by two feet wide has been constructed. On the end of this platform nearest the tree trunk it then builds a huge domeshaped rest a foot or so high with thick sides of interwoven thorns. A covered passageway is then made from the nest to the end of the platform in as crooked a manner as possible. Across the outer end, as well as at short Intervals along the Inside of this tunnel, are placed cunning little fences of thorns with Just space enough for the owners to pass through. On going out this opening is closed by the owner by placing thorns across the gateway and thus the safety of the eggs or young is assured. 4