^24 NliSrS AiVV LOGS Uf AVyVliALlAN BIRDS. 



rag, " is found cliicfly in tlio coastal regions, from South Queensland 

 round to Western Australia, and is regarded as a common species. 

 Tlie Wattle Biid is between 14 inches and 15 inches in length, and is 

 greyisli-stnped in colour, with the centre of tlic abdomen more or less 

 yellow. The eyes are reddish, and the wattle or lobes blood-red. 

 These lobes — one on either side of the face — are pendulous, and give 

 rise to the vernacular name of Wattle Bird. The birds are good eating 

 — ten averaged 4 J ounces in weight. My first experience of the 

 bii'd was many years ago, when I took its lovely, salmon-pink eggs 

 in Albert Park, near Melbourne. I have since taken tlieu' uests in such 

 places as mistletoe on giun-trees in the Brighton and Oakleigh districts, 

 in the open, prickly bui'saria bushes, in the mallee, as well as in bushy 

 trees in Western Australia. 



In Mr. Lau's Queensland (South) note he says : — " I have seen the 

 Wattle, or Gill Bird, near the Pacific, where honeysuckles, banksia, or 

 sandy ground abound ; nevertheless, as such trees are often abundantly 

 to be seen towards the interior, this bird has found them out, and there 

 is where I have met with uests, which were situated mostly on the top 

 of a slender sapUng. Nests formed of di-y sticks, and rootlets inside ; 

 eggs, two to three, mostly the latter number." My own experience in 

 the south is that the eggs are usually a pair, although I possess records 

 of having taken two nests with each tlirec eggs. I was able to verify 

 Gilberts acute observation, that the nests of the Wattle Bird in 

 Western Australia are usually built without lining. 



In the years 1853-60, I am told. Wattle Birds were very plentiful 

 at Frcncliman's, Amphitheatre, Warriiambool, and other places in the 

 western district of Victoria, where seventy birds might be easily shot 

 in a morning. 



Mr. J. Sommers, Cheltenham, I'eported that he had found the single 

 egg of the Pallid Cuckoo in a Wattle Bird's nest, 28th September, 

 1895. 



The following " snake yarn " is a clipping from a Melbourne news- 

 paper : — " Some years ago, while in Pyalong, my attention was attracted 

 by the noise and fluttering of a Wattle Bird. I was siuprised to see 

 a snake up a wattle-tree, in the act of swallowing a fully-feathered 

 bird. His body was balanced on the limbs near the nest, which was 

 twelve feet or thirteen feet from the groiuid. The bird was slimed all 

 over, and with great effort the snake was trying to gulp it down head 

 first. I watched the process for some time, and then despatched the 

 snaJse. The bird was dead. Near tlic log close by were some feathers 

 (same sort), so I gusss the reptile swallowed two birds. The snake was 

 about four feet long ; it had a thick neck, and was dark in colour." 



The breeding months include August to December, but principally 

 September and October. 



