NESTS AND EGGS Of AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 183 



Tlie bird may be called Mount-ain, for it is a lover of the fern gullies 

 and inusk-lrco thickets of the hilly tracts. But it has been in the 

 tea-tree groves of the coast where 1 have most cultivated its acquaintance. 



On the eastern shore of Port Pliilhp, after passing St. Kilda, patches of 

 tea-tree ( f.fptdyitrmiiiii ), greater or smaller in extent, occur at intervals 

 until Mordialloc is reached. Here density commences in real earnest, 

 and constitutes almost an unbroken margin to the eastern portion of the 

 bay. In these dense brushes, if carefully sought for, may be .seen the 

 Ground Thrush — a timid, modest creature — " at home. 



In October this great belt of living LeptoKperinuin is a mass of white 

 flowers, so dense that in some sheltered nooks the warm grey foliage 

 and seed cttps are barely visible. The aroma from the flowers is like the 

 perfume of new honey. 



Lovers of natiUT, poets, and others, in all lands, usually connect 

 the wedding gamient of spring with the nesting of birds. And so it is, 

 as a rule ; but the nesting of the Ground Thrush is one of the interesting 

 but not altogether imique exceptions among our Australian bii-ds. 



In the bleak and frosty months like July, the Ground Tlu-ush com- 

 mences to construct its nest, or re-build by making additions to a former 

 old home. In cases where nests are used by the birds season after season, 

 they become a goodly size, and the foundations have a venerable, moss- 

 g^own appearance. Some of these favourite old homes measure a foot 

 across, while the actual cup of the nest would only measure half that 

 dimension by two or three inches deep. 



A favourite situation for the nest is about twelve feet from the groimd 

 in the fork of an upright tree, in the centre of a thick clump or scrub, 

 growing in a hollow or dip between the ancient .sand drifts, where about 

 the base of the trees is scattered dead and decaying timber among dwarf 

 and sparingly-grown bracken. Another favourite locality for a nest is 

 on a sand rise, about twenty paces from high-water mark, the nest being 

 placed on a thick horizontal branch hidden with thick foliage ; or another 

 site is a darkened spot where the taller tea-tree tops meeting overhead, 

 together with the closely-packed, twiggy, lichen-covered stems, quite 

 subdue the light below. Another nest may be humbly situated within 

 reach of hand. Yet again a seciu^e resting-place for a nest may be chosen 

 on a rough bulky hmb of a banksia tree, if well protected with crowded 

 tea- tree scrub. 



The nests are perfect models of bird architecture, beautifully pro- 

 portioned and tastefully decorated with verdant moss — fit subjects for 

 pictures (see illustration). The eggs also are gems for beauty, being of a 

 delicate light-gi-een, mottled with purplish-red. A triplet of eggs may 

 be found once in every two or thi-ee nests, the balance being in pairs. 



As .stated, the eggs are generally deposited in winter. One wonders 

 how it is possible for the httle naked young to siu'vive the raw months. 

 But let a person enter these dense tea^trcc scrubs, and he will be astonished 

 at the mildness of the atmosphere there, for the density of the timber and 

 foliage seems to exclude the keenest wind, neither does the frost harden 

 the ground. 



Sometimes the earliest birds lav about the end of June ; a few 



