.Vi:STS A.VD EGGS 0? AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. jOj 



a male bird iu an unoccupied cottage, about half-a-niilc from where I live. 

 He brougiit it to me, but I saw that it had been injured in the catching. 

 I thought, however, that if I put it in a cage for a few days, it would 

 recover, and then I could let it go. I put it in a cage and hung the cage 

 on the wall outside. In less than a quarter of an hour his four little 

 wives had found him. They made a great fuss, and evidently could not 

 understand his not being able to join them. They remained on the cage 

 some time and then flew away. I thought they imagined that, as he 

 could not get out, it was no use waiting, and so left him to Ms fate. 

 But I was wi'ong, for in a very short time they all returned, each cari'ving 

 some choice morsel in her bill, which was carefully put between the bars 

 of tlie cage. This they continued to do until evening. At davliglit next 

 morning I foimd them all seated on the cage, but alas ! the husband was 

 dead. They did not leave the cage until I took his body out. I placed 

 it on a log of wood, and it was pitiable to see those dear little wives 

 trying by all the means in theii- power to rouse liim. 1 thought the kindest 

 thing to do was to bury their dead out of their sight, which I did, but it 

 was many days before the faithful wives left the vicinity." 



'■ Ncno's " contribution from South Gippsland is: — " Refemng to 

 the Blue Wrens. I am inclined to believe that the male of this assumes 

 a plain dress in the winter. When collecting, I would as soon think of 

 beating the heath for snipe in June as looking for a full-pluniagcd Wren 

 in that month. At nesting time a single male bii'd generally has quite 

 a harem of plain-coloured mates. The Wrens have a peculiar habit of 

 calling out should anything unusual happen in the forest. The sudden 

 flight of a Hawk, or the falling of the Hmb of a tree, Lmmediately catches 

 their attention. Often at night, when flight-shooting by a lonely lagoon. 

 I have heard the report of my gun answered from some ncighbovuing bush 

 by a faint silvery tiill, as if to saj-, ' I am here and listening.' The Wrens 

 become veiy familiar with bushmen, and may be seen mnning about the 

 tent floor like mice." 



To Mr. Holroyd now belongs the credit of having first placed on record 

 that the beautiful Blue Wren is a polygamist, or at all events, he has 

 established that more than one female, to a nest, assists in the incvibation. 

 However, it has yet to be proved that more than one bird lays in the 

 same nest — a statement I have doubts about. I never recollect flushing 

 a male bird from the nest, therefore it is possible that at times one female 

 may relieve the other at sitting, if the male does not share in that task. 

 On the matter of Wrens I have just turned up some M.S. notes on bii-ds 

 left for my use by Mr. Hei-mann Lau, a Gennan naturalist of keen obser- 

 vation, who spent many years in Australia, but has now retui'ncd to the 

 land of his birth. Refcn-ing more particularly to the Wrens on the 

 Darhng Downs (Queensland), he says : — " Many are the vai-ieties of these 

 singularly handsome little chaps : I know of three on the Downs, viz., 

 Blue Wren (M. ci/arinit .' j. Lambert's Wren (JI lamherti), and Black- 

 headed or Oi'ange-backed Wren (M . melanocepliahisj, all of them differing 

 in colour, but partaking of the same habits. What is said of one may 

 allude to all. The perfect wedding dress of the male bird (the female is 

 attired in the sombre hue of brownish-grey) can be seen only in his third 



