The nests
are larger than the largest sponge, though they vary in size; they are
roofed over, and great part of them is solid and great part hollow. If
you use a sharp knife it is not easy to cut the nest through; but if
you cut it, and at the same time bruise it with your hand, it will
soon crumble to pieces, like the halosachne. The opening is small,
just enough for a tiny entrance, so that even if the nest upset the
sea does not enter in; the hollow channels are like those in
sponges. It is not known for certain of what material the nest is
constructed; it is possibly made of the backbones of the gar-fish;
for, by the way, the bird lives on fish. Besides living on the
shore, it ascends fresh-water streams. It lays generally about five
eggs, and lays eggs all its life long, beginning to do so at the age
of four months.
15
The hoopoe usually constructs its nest out of human excrement.
It changes its appearance in summer and in winter, as in fact do the
great majority of wild birds. (The titmouse is said to lay a very
large quantity of eggs: next to the ostrich the blackheaded tit is
said by some to lay the largest number of eggs; seventeen eggs have
been seen; it lays, however, more than twenty; it is said always to
lay an odd number.
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