76 MR. ROBERT GODFREY ON THE 



The nesting-seasoD lasts from the beginning of September 

 to the end of April. I have, by watching a bird carrying 

 nesting material^ found a nest on the 1 1th of September, and 

 I have had one with hard-set eggs brought me as late as 

 April 13th. The nest, built generally in a thick bush or in 

 the lower part of a tree, is composed externally of bright 

 moss, pieces of stick, leaves and vegetable refuse : on this 

 foundation rests the nest proper, a firm cup of mud and cow- 

 dung plastered together with leaves, with fine twigs and 

 lichens embedded in the brim, and green moss and twngs 

 adorning the outside ; the inner lining, sometimes fairly 

 thick, is composed of withered leaves or layer upon layer of 

 grass stems, the flat blades of grass gradually giving place to 

 wiry stems, with perhaps a few fine roots, some feathery 

 pappus and a little hair intermingled. The average internal 

 measurements of the cup are 3| inches across by 2 inches deep. 



The eggs, three in number as far as my Pirie experience 

 goes, are green, dotted, spotted and blotched with brown of 

 various shades and occasionally with purplish marks. In 

 some eggs the surface is evenly and fairly closely covered 

 with markings; in others, the greater j)art of the ground 

 colour is visible, though hidden by blotches at the larger end. 



Cape Rock Thrush — Monticola ruj)estris (VieilL). On 

 broi^cn mountain-sides where rude boulders are intermingled 

 and overtopped with bushes, the Cape Rock Thrush may be 

 seen hopping from rock to rock or perching conspicuously 

 on a dead tree. On the Pirie mountains the bird is locally 

 distributed and probably resident. B(dow the forest, how- 

 ever, the bird is exceedingly rare and has on only one occa- 

 sion, 21st July 1908, been brought me by the boys. 



The Sentinel Rock Thrush — Monticola ex pi orator 

 ( VieilL) has so far escaped detection at Pirie, but in King 

 Williamstown a pair was twice seen at the Reserve by Dr. 

 Brownlee in the winter of 1915. On the foreshore at East 

 London, both among the rocks and on the links, I have met 

 with th(^ species in June and July, and Mr. Wood records it 

 from the West Bank in October also. 



