104 TKEKONID/E. 



body protected by the limb it was sittin.q upon. After having' a f(ood look round it Hew into a 

 thicl^' patch of scrul) a few yards away, and was lost to view ; however, it soon came back, and 

 settled about two feet from the ne^t and facin;^ us. I was afiaid the spread of shot mit^lit shatter 

 the nest, but as it was ^^ettiu'j; late I iired, and the bird fell into a small pool of water beneath. 

 The egg was secured after some trouble, as the nest was built near the end of a thin outspreading 

 brancli of a ' Scrub' Elm, about twenty feet from the ground. The scoop had to be used, and the 

 nest was so small I was afraid the egg would roll over, and it took the black some time before 

 he got it safely into the net. The limb was then chopped off and the nest secured. Upon 

 dissection of the bird, which proved to be the female, no other egg was found in it approaching 

 maturity, the largest being the size of a pea." 



The nest, with the female, has been mounted and set up m the uroup collection of the 

 Australian Museum. 



Writing in May, 1910, Mr. Savidge further remarks: — "■ Mcgalopvi-pia ina^nifica is disappearing 

 at a very fast rate, and one has now to travel away to the far oft" scrubs to find it. During the 

 winter months it congregates in small llocks of twenty to thirty birds, and can generally be found 

 in the White Cedar tree, which then has berries. Its food consists of fruits, principally figs, and 

 berries, and so fat does it sometimes become that I have seen it burst open on falling to the 

 ground. Its nest is a small llimsy structure of a few sticks, and lined with a kind of wire-hk'e 

 tendril of vines, and is placed from twelve feet to thirty feet from the t^round, and is neatly 

 always placed in the Black Myrtle tree. The bird sits very straight up upon its single egg. I 

 have found several of the nests and eggs, but in the dense scrubs they are not easily seen, keen 

 sight is not only reijuired to find them, but sharp ears to catch the sound of the fti^ht of the birds 

 as they leave the nest. One nest I found above Gordon Brook was built about twelve feet from the 

 ground, and as the black-fellow and I approached it the bird appeared to fall from the nest till 

 near the ground ; it then righted itself and Hopped along and r>ettledoii the ,L;round al)out twenty 

 yards away. At first we followed it, thinking it was the young bird trying to make its escape, 

 but the truth was it was the parent bird trying to decoy us away from the young one just hatched 

 out. Others I have seen would allow one to walkabout under the nest, and not fly off, but they 

 generally lea\e before an intruder gets close. The aborigines here call this bird • Pomargum.' " 



The nest is an exceedingly small and perfectly flat structure, and with the exception 

 of a few long straggling sticks lying almost parallel to the branch on which it is placed, 

 barely averages five inches in diameter. It is built at the junction of a forked horizontal branch 

 of an .Ipliiiiiiiiitlu- pliilippiiit'iisis, partially covered with a growth of moss. The nest is composed 

 of thin sticks and twigs interjiiingled with the wiry spiral tendrils of a vine, the latter material 

 wholly forming the centre of the structure for the reception of the egg. The bird when sitting 

 would almost conceal the nest, for very little of it is \isible below the branch. The green leafy 

 twigs which sprout out in close proximity also harmonise well with the colour of the back, 

 wings and tail of the sitting bird, and renders it less liable to detection. 



The egg from the above described nest is pure white, elongate o\al m form, and there is 

 very little difference in shape at each end, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustreless. 

 It measures: — Length 1-57 x 1-2 inches, .'\nother egg taken by Mr. Savidge on the 30th 

 November, 1897, is an ellipse in form, has the shell lustrous, and measures : — Length I'Sg x i-i 

 inches. .A third egg taken in November, 1898, is almost lustreless, and measures — Length 1-62 

 X !•! 2 inches. 



In the Clarence River District October until the end of January constitutes the usual 

 breeding season, but Mr. Savidge has taken more eggs in November than m any other month. 



