NOTE ON THE NESTING-SITE OF GERYGONE PERSON AT A-NORTH. 1 87 



laying her eggs near the margins of a swamp often slightly 

 smear them with mud ; the Australian Dotterel (Peltohyas 

 australis) when leaving her eggs cover them with a layer of 

 thin sticks, two or three inches in length ; and the Black-backed 

 Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) when leaving the nest cover her 

 eggs with a layer of wool and rabbit fur I 1 Many species, too, 

 when a Cuckoo deposits an egg in their nest, if it contains no 

 eggs of their own, covers up the Cuckoo's egg with a layer of 

 lining material, sufficiently thick to prevent incubation. 



Of the many stratagems used by birds to secure immunity 

 from harm, probably no more ingenious device is utilized than that 

 of the JNlask'ed Bush Warbler (Gerygone personata), who nearly 

 always builds its hooded dome-shaped nest close to a wasp's nest, 

 of which fuller details may be found in "Nests and Eggs of 

 .Australian Biids."'-' The White-throated Bush Warbler, too, or 

 Native Canary (Gerygone albigidaris), a migratory species visiting 

 South-eastern Australia during the spring and summer months, 

 and at present common in the vicinity of Sydney, often builds 

 its nest in trees affected with scale, and thickly infested with 

 ants, while yet another species, the Large-billed Bush Warbler 

 {Gerygone magnirostris), inhabiting Northern and North-eastern 

 Australia, more frequently builds a long pendant nest on a vine 

 or branch overhanging water, and closely resembling a mass of 

 debris, left by the receding water after the creeks or rivers have 

 been in flood. Hence the name of " Flood-bird " locally applied 

 to this species in the neighbourhood of Cooktown and the Bloom- 

 held River District, North-eastern Queensland. 



My colleague, Mr. Allan R. McCulloch, who was collecting 

 in 1907 at Somerset, Cape York, and on some of the adjacent 

 islets, returned with a number of birds in different stages of 

 plumage, in some instances from the young in down to the adult, 

 also some nests, and eggs and photographs of eggs, sea-birds and 

 young, in situ, of which the latter will form figures for future 

 Parts of the " Nest and Egg Catalogue" now being prepared 

 for the press. Among the photographs is a very interesting one 

 of a deserted nest of Gerygone personata built in close proximity 

 to a wasp's nest, which is reproduced (Plate lvii.). Mr. 

 McCulloch has also kindly supplied me with the following notes 

 relating to the taking of it. 



1 North.— Austr. Mus Sp .Cat., I. Nests and Eggs of Austr. Birds, i., 

 1900, p. 6. 



2 North. — Austr. Mus. Sp. Cat., I. Nests and Eggs of Austr. Birds, i., 

 1903, p. 202. 



