52 Ross, Some Bird-Life on the Murray Frontage. I i^|^"oct 



of swamps and watercourses to a nesting-place of Little 

 Cormorants. This was in a thickly-timbered area about 30 

 yards in diameter, in a swamp, but none of the trees were very 

 large. Every available nesting-place seemed to have been used 

 — from a ievj feet above the water to the topmost limbs of the 

 tallest saplings. We inspected a number of nests that were not 

 difficult to get at, and found most of them contained from three 

 to five eggs, but several were occupied by broods of four and 

 five young birds. In several of the nests high up we noticed 

 young birds well fledged, which seemed to indicate that the 

 higher nesting-places are taken first — that is, by the birds which 

 arrive earliest. A few yards away, on the side of this thicket, 

 was a huge gum in which several White-fronted Herons and a 

 few Little Black Cormorants were nesting, the latter having 

 selected the highest branches for their homes. On the opposite 

 side was a somewhat similar tree, in which we noticed the nest 

 of a Spoonbill {P/atalea nigripes), with two young birds standing 

 on a limb close to it. In this same tree were about a dozen 

 nests of the Little Black Cormorant — possibly the overflow from 

 the general muster of the last-mentioned species. An attempt 

 was made to get a photo of the young Spoonbills. In spite of 

 the height they were up and the distance between them and the 

 camera, neither the photographer nor his camera was beaten. 



Immediately around the farm-house Superb Warblers 

 {Malnrus cyaneiis) were numerous, and there were several old 

 nests in a large rose bush which completely covered the dairy. 

 Illustrations were obtained among some thistles on the Victorian 

 side of the river, immediately opposite the house. 



The nest appearing in the collection was found while our 

 photographer was patiently waiting for a Black-and-White Fan- 

 tail (^RJiipidura tricolor) to go on her nest, for which the camera 

 was focussed. She eventually became so tame that she took no 

 notice of the camera, and very little of the photographer, so that 

 he was able to take several photos, of her. I sincerely trust that 

 she successfully reared a pair of birds from the two eggs on 

 which she was sitting. 



On this visit we were disappointed because of the scarcity of 

 Pectoral Rails {^Hypotcenidia philippinensis), which usually are 

 very plentiful there, coming all around the house. We had one 

 regular visitor which was quite tame, running about the bank of 

 the Gulpa at the back of the house, frequently coming within a 

 few yards of us. Its nest was soon discovered, on the opposite 

 bank of the Gulpa. The scarcity of Rails was balanced by the 

 unusually large number of Gallinules {G. tenebrosa), but they, of 

 course, were not so tame. They were always to be seen strut- 

 ting along the banks of the rivers as saucily as so many 

 Bantams, and then scampering and flying for cover when dis- 

 turbed. 



