104 CAMPOPHAr.ID.E. 



In New South Wales, the present species is resident throughout the year, but is far more 

 abundant during the spring and summer months. It gives preference for open forest lands near 

 the coast, and the timbered margins of rivers and creeks are its chief resorts inland. It has 

 a slow undulating flight; and when resting, which it usually does on a dead branch of a tree, 

 frequently utters a peculiar low rattle-like note. Generally it is met with in isolated pairs 

 during the breeding season, each pair keeping to its own domain ; but during the late summer 

 and autumn months the adults, accompanied by their young, associate together in flocks, and 

 are a nuisance about orchards and vineyards owing to their depredations. This species has 

 a curious habit, when settling after flight, of lifting the wings and refolding them again. 



In the rocky heights of Mereenie Bluff and Stokes' Pass, Central Australia, Mr. G. A. 

 Keartland observed a number of these birds soaring high in the air, and performing graceful 

 evolutions, and, later on, hopping about the rocks in a peculiar manner, which deceived 

 him as to their identity. Two he shot proved to be male and female, and were in full adult 

 plumage. During a trip in August, 1900, Dr. A. M. Morgan also observed flocks of these 

 birds in two stages of plumage at Mount Gunson, about one Inmdred miles north-west of Port 

 Augusta, South Australia. 



The food of this species is obtained chiefly among the leafy sprays of the tall Eucalypti, 

 and occasionally on tlie ground. Stomachs that I have examined contained principally cater- 

 pillars, also the smaller species of Phasmida;, and other soft-bodied insects, grasshoppers, 

 and a few small seeds and berries. It is very destructive in orchards and vineyards, feeding 

 upon all the softer kinds of fruits, such as mulberries, peaches, apricots, cherries, plums, and 

 bananas. From its fondness for the former fruit, it is known in the Upper Clarence District 

 as the "Mulberry-bird." About the vineyards at Albury it is one of the first birds to attack 

 the grapes. Locally it is known there by the name of "Blue-bird" and "Blue Jay." 



For the purposes of building it readily adapts itself to its environment, resorting to the 

 branches of low trees inland, and to high, and sometimes the tallest trees in well frequented 

 districts, or near the coast. The nest, which is remarkably small for the size of the bird, is 

 built in the angle of a forked horizontal branch, frequently in bare and exposed situations, and 

 generally near the extremity of a limb. It is a nearly flat structure, and varies in shape 

 according to the angle in which it is built, but as a rule it is somewhat triangular in 

 form, the rim being nearly level with or slightly above the fork in which it is placed. 

 Sometimes it is constructed of short pieces of twig, held together with spider's web; others 

 are formed entirely of flbrous rootlets, or the thread-like leaves of' the Castiarina, or have thin 

 scales of bark worked into the base, but all are firmly held together with the same material 

 — spider's web. Some nests are without ornament of any kind, others have the exposed portion 

 and the rim decorated with lichens. An average nest measures externally four inches and 

 three-quarters in diameter by one inch and a half in depth, and the inner saucer-shaped 

 depression three inches and a half in diameter by three-quarters of an inch in depth. Inland 

 their nests are generally built in box, belar, or myall trees, as low as twelve feet from the 

 ground: but a nest I found in a Bloodwood, at Copmanhurst, was built at an altitude of fully 

 eighty feet. An aboriginal climbed this tree, with the aid of a vine he cut in the scrub, and 

 the bird remained sitting until he was within ten feet of the nest. It contained three fresh 

 eggs, and while he was engaged in taking them the female made repeated swoops at him. 



The eggs are usually three, sometimes two in number for a sitting, and vary considerably 

 in shape, size, colour, and disposition of markings. The most common types are oval or elongate- 

 oval in form, others are much rounded at the smaller end, while specimens slightly pyriform 

 at the narrower end are not uncommon. The shell is close-grained, and its surface smooth and 

 as a rule very glossy. The ground colour varies from dull asparagus-green to bright apple- 

 green, and from olive-green to pale olive-brown; in nearly all varieties, a more or less tinge of 



