^i:srs A.VV logs UI- AUS/ f!AUAN blKDS. 



43y 



WliilsL ;il liiiuli, uiuIlt the Ircus, tliu female appeared, and after Jioppiug 

 about disappeai'Lil into a nest about teu feet from tliu ground, in the 

 sapling (a eucalypt), tlial supported the roar end of our tent. 'file nest 

 was so small <uid well hidden amongst the twigs of the upper braiieh, 

 that it liad eseaped observation before. The nest was quiekly sounded — 

 result, uo eggs. The hen returned at dusk and remained in the nest 

 till suu-rise, wlieu tlie male sweelly called her out. We were absent 

 most of that day, and consequently did not observe what occuiTod at the 

 nest , but at eve the hen retiuned as on the previous day. Th" 

 following morn (11th), when we left, the nest contained an egg; and 

 subsequently when the full elutcli (3) was laid, the Messi-s. Jirittlcbauk, 

 who live in tlie neighbourhood, kindly took the nest and contents for 

 me. The uest was composed of sheep's wool, down off the clematis 

 seeds, silky substance from spiders' cocoons, and coated with brownish 

 portions of seeds from banksia cones and excreta of wood-borers 

 (caterpillars). 



Following up this cue, the same season Mr. C. C. Brittlebauk found 

 two other nests on the loth and 18th November respectively, in the 

 Gorge ; one at a height of only three feet from the ground, the other on 

 the opposite side of the river in a tall tree. Botli nests, as in my case, 

 were in eucalypts and contained each three eggs. In order to find tliese 

 nests Mr. Brittlebauk had to exercise more tiian ordin;u-y pei-severauce, 

 tracking the birds to their little homes for a considerable distance, not 

 over pleasant park-like country, but over rugged rocks and gullies. 

 Mr. Brittlebauk made the interesting observation that these perfect 

 little birds gather the material for uest building when they are on the 

 wing — after the fashion of the Humming Birds, — flying up and down 

 close to the branch or twig while collecting the stuff. 



The next season, in the same locality, also in November, my son 

 Archie discovered a Flower Pecker building a few feet from the ground 

 in a bmsaria bush. Again in November (1899), near our camp in the 

 Lerderderg Ranges I found a Diea;um's nest in a gum sapUng, the nest 

 being remarkably beautiful by reason of the golden-green moss with 

 wliieli it was constructed. 



The following is a field note from Mr. W. B. Barnard, made in the 

 Bloomfield River district, at Northern Queensland: " DicKuiii liirun- 

 (linriceum. Found uest on the 27th October (1893), in the forest 

 country. Nest about fom- inches long ; composed of the fluff oft' the 

 zamia-trep, and suspended from a twig foiu" feet from the ground ; 

 entrance at side ; three pme white eggs. " 



Mr. H. P. C. Ashworth, in a brief paper on " The Dispei-sal of 

 Mistletoe," which appeared in the " Vjctorian Naturalist" (1895), 

 refen-ii g to the Swallow Dicseuiu, says : " Intent on observing them 

 I set off one day wth a telescope to the junction of Gardiner's Creek 

 with the Yarra, where there is a fine clump of box trees, covered with 

 mistletoe. After watching tlie birds for some time through the 

 telescope, 1 foimd that they first plucked a beny, then repaired to a 

 larger bough, whence after a few moments the berry was dropped. 

 I had always thought tliat the berry was eaten whole, but on picking one 

 up the mystery was solved, for it was empty ; the seed, with its glutinous 



