\Asr:> A.w Ll,os oh auistraLlan birds. 



45y 



Uiu ull-iccuniug Hoods, which sweep away, without meicy, nests, eggs 

 and young. Scvei-al times I witnessed this at the Coudaniine bridge, 

 Yandilla. It seems that the bird's instinct is liere at fault. 



Keferring to the crowded number of nests of the Fairy Martin in 

 some instances, about the end of November, 1860, Dr. Ramsay dis- 

 covered a hirge batcli under an overhanging rock upon tile banks of llic 

 Bell Iviver. lie counted upwards of one hunched nests, all so closely 

 built together that of many only the entrances were visible. 



Of my own casual observations in dill'crent localities of tlie homes 

 of tlie Fairy-like little Swallow, I iiave nothing new to add, except the 

 small colonies I found breeding on the face of red cliffs overhanging the 

 Werribeo River, near its moutli, not far from the sea, which is at 

 variance from Gould's statement that he had never heard of the Fairy 

 lilartiu approaching the coast hue nearer than twenty miles. 



The snugly-built homes of the Fairy Martin are sometimes used by 

 I'ardalotes, wherein to rear their yoimg. Those imported articles, 

 Sparrows, also make similar use of them. 



In Riverina the Fairy Martin sometimes resorts to hollowed trees 

 to nest. Mr. Tlios. Musgiove, a farmer, informed me of a burnt-out 

 tree he knew, overhanging the Murray, where were forty or fifty nests. 

 The group of nests was low, and would have made a pretty picture 

 for a camera. 



FAMILY— MOTAGILLID.E : WAGTAILS AND PIPITS 



382. — Anthus AUsTiiALis, "Vigors and Horsiield. — (240) 

 GROUND LARK. 



/'<,!.'K/t. — Could: Bird.s uf .\ustialia, ful., vol. iii., pi. 73. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds lirit. Mus., vol. x., p. 615. 



Previous Descriptions of Ei,'gs. — (lould : Birds of Australia (1848!; 

 also Handbook, vol. i., p. \Cji (1865) : Legye : Proc. Kuy. Sue, 

 Tasmania, p. 130 (iSSS); North: Austn. Miis. Cat., p. icS 

 (1S89). 



Gt'diini phinil Di^lrilnitioii. — Whole of Australia and Tasmania. 



.\cift. — Open or cup-shaped, deep ; compactly constructed of diail 

 grass; placed in a hole or depression in the ground so tiiat the run 

 is flu.sh with the surface, usually under the shelter of a gi-a«s tuft or 

 stone, in the open. Sometimes in Tasmania built on the top of what is 

 locally called a " band-grass " tussock. Dimensions : intenial 2^, inches 

 across by H inches deep. 



Ei/ys. — Clutch, three to four ; true oval in foi'iii ; texture of shell 

 fine; surface slightly glossy; colour, varies niiuh. usuallv greyish or 

 hght-diab, minutely freckled and splashed all over, lliickest on the apex, 



