304 



MOTAOILLID^. 



always, and everywhere quite common in the town on any bare allotment. This summer being 

 a very dry one, only half an inch of rain having fallen since August, these birds have come into 

 the town in numbers ; especially numerous are they in the central reserve, where the Council 

 has been tipping a great quantity of manure." 



While resident at Circular Head, Tasmania, Dr. L. Holden sent me the following notes: — 

 "On the 14th November, 1886, I found three nests of Anthns australis, on a sand-bank near the 

 beach. All were built of dry grass lined with hair, level with the ground, and protected by 

 overhanging grass or fern ; one was empty, another contained three fresh eggs, and the third 

 young ones about a week old. Visiting the former nest on the 20th November, I found it 

 contained the unusual number of five eggs. On the 5th December I found a nest with three fresh 

 eggs, another by the side of the road at Detention River, with three slightly incubated eggs, on 

 the 28th December, and on the i6th January, 1887, one some ten yards above high water mark 

 with three fresh eggs. Near Hobart on the 24th October, 1898, I found a nest with three eggs 

 in a paddock behind sand banks bordering Bellerive Beach." 



Writing on the i6th September, 1902, from Waratah, Mt. Bischofif, Tasmania, Mr. E. D. 

 Atkinson states : — " We note that Anthus australis was absent all the winter, and has just come 

 back to us. This species and Rhipidiwa dicmenensis migrate to the coast, probably on account of 

 the scarcity of food here." 



The nest, a rather deep cup-shaped structure, is formed in a hollow scraped in the ground, 

 of which the rim is neatly pressed down and flush with the surface, the inner cup averaging 

 about two inches and a half in diameter by one inch and three quarters in depth. It is usually 

 formed entirely of dried grasses, but some nests are lined at the bottom with horse-hair. Generally 

 it is sheltered above by an overhanging tuft of grass, and is sometimes placed amongst low 

 rushes or weeds. The nest, although as a rule well concealed, is not difficult to find, the anxious 

 alarm note of the sitting bird, after being flushed, is a pretty sure indication to an intruder that 

 he is in the vicinity of it. In my early collecting days near Melbourne, we use to quietly visit 

 the known nesting haunts of this species at night, flush the sitting bird, and either discover the 

 nest at once, or by marking the spot find it on the following morning. 



Curious nesting sites are sometimes selected by the Australian Pipit. A nest presented to 

 the Trustees of the Australian Museum by Mr. A. M. N. Rose, is built inside an old rusty 

 preserve tin, measuring four inches and a half in length by three inches and a half in diameter ; 

 the entrance to it is narrowed to two inches by a small platform of dried grasses, which protrudes 

 out of the mouth of the tin. This nest was found on the 24th November, 1896, at Campbelltown, 

 and contained two slightly incubated eggs. The tin, which has the lid still attached, but bent 

 at a right angle, was laying exposed on the ground, without shelter or concealment of any kind 

 beyond a few short blades of dried grass. This nest was figured in the " Records of the Australian 

 Museum," Vol. III., pi. IV. (1897). 



A photograph of a similarly placed nest was forwarded me by Mr. Chas. G. Gibson, together 

 with the following note : — " At Lawler's, in the East Murchison District, Western Australia, I 

 found on the 21st December, 1906, a nest of Anthns australis, with three heavily incubated eggs, 

 built inside an empty fruit tin laying on the ground ; the position struck me as being rather an 

 unusual place." 



Surgeon General W. D. C. Williams (Trustee) also informs me that he has a nest of Anthus 

 australis, containing two eggs, built in the basal half of a beer bottle, which was found by a 

 teamster upright near a log, at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. 



The eggs are usually three, sometimes four, in number for a sitting, and only on the occasion 

 referred to by Dr. Holden have I heard of five eggs being the complement. They vary from 

 oval to elongate-oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth and more or less lustrous; 



