MALURTTS. 



•219 



Sydney, but unlike Valiinis siipci-bus, it no longer inhabits the gardens and parks of the city. 

 Mr. George Masters, the Curator of the Macleay Museum, informs me that the garden 

 surrounding the residence of the late Sir William Macleay at Elizabeth Bay was one of the 

 last resorts of this species, adjacent to the city, and it was there exterminated by domestic cats. 



Although by no means common, it is generally distributed throughout the upper Middle 

 Harbour District, and the neighbouring suburbs on the Milson's Point railway line. At 

 Roseville I have found it breeding in the orchards, and in one instance close to the road of one 

 of the leading thoroughfares. In habits it is warier than the Superb Warbler, which is often 

 found in the same localities, and as with that species its usual food consists of insects of various 



kinds and their larvae. 



The note of the male resembles 

 the sound produced by the turn 

 of a child's small spring rattle, or 



wj^^.'inr A - .7 , III, , Ml -■ ~-. ~ ■ the winding of a small clock. 



«ite^'j^^ . t>V'#'iSr^'''WK''!! rSi^^'^StWHiWi-',)^^' The nest is an oval dome 



imfff ^ \w/r * ^ " • " ' ^^VtrSffw^^f-Jjnm^i shaped structure, with an en- 



^P/ dAW^mt ■■ -9 ^^^ .H^miWS/^aiVfl larged entrance near the top or 



in the side; externally it is formed 

 ijf thin dried strips and broad 



f^ ■'^-■f.-i'A's'' r^9BBi^^V#i x.'iic^ifji' ,^^^E spiders, the interior being lined 



with very fine dried grass and 

 bark, interwoven with a small 

 (juantity of hair or fur; others 



^ 'A. • "SrMS 'i '»«-«» -*- -y '^ - ."-i. JiLj^iMf !■■' ^"-^ lined with silky-white downy 



^^in^i^ Vri^^^^^^^|^>::^^i^!^M'l^ seeds or other soft material. It 

 I^SciB? zi."^. StaKSe^-'^i <U^BMR^a%^?«mS!^P^> S{%ll is neither so neatly woven nor 



warmly lined as that of Malunis 

 .^iipei'bns, and as a rule nothing but 

 dead and dull-coloured material 

 is used in its outer construction. 

 An average nest measures ex- 

 ternally five inches and a half 

 m height by three inches and a half in diameter; entrance one inch and a half. Typically 

 the entrance to the nest is much enlarged, and the structure is narrower on the lower 

 half. One 1 found at Middle Harbour, on the 29th September, 1899, built a few inches 

 from the ground in a Dwarf Apple-tree (Augophora cordifolia), had the entrance two inches 

 in diameter, and the cavity below the opening only one inch and three-quarters in diameter 

 by two in depth, and directly I flushed the female from it I could see three fresh eggs lying 

 at the bottom of the nest. It is generally built within a few inches of the ground, and is 

 loosely attached to the stems of a low bush, coarse grass stems, or clump of ferns, or to a 

 few dry twigs fallen among long dead grass, and often near a log. Although comparatively 

 rare in the neighbourhood of Sydney, nearly all the nests I have found were in more exposed 

 situations than as a rule are the nests of the common Malurus supcrbus. I found the nest 

 figured above on the 13th .Vugust, 1900, at Middle Harbour, when only a few thin strips 

 of bark were laid in some long grass sheltered above by a low gum sapling. I examined 

 it several times during the next few weeks, and although added to since I first found it, 

 thought it was deserted, as the birds were always in different parts of the scrub far removed 



NEST AND KGGS OP LAMliEUT S SUPERB WARBLER. 



