Vol. VI 

 1907 



•"1 Mellor, The A.O.U. in Tasmania. 165 



used for week-end and holiday excursions by his family. Here 

 we soon made ourselves at home, and it was not long ere we 

 were seated before a warm fire, with hot tea and bush eatables, 

 and right glad we were, as, although the day had been warm, the 

 night air in these elevated situations was sharp and keen. Next 

 morning we were early astir to catch sight of anything new 

 that might cross our path, and a number of birds were identi- 

 fied in the thick bush growth and timbered country. Where 

 giant trees had gone down before the fierce blasts of the 

 mountain gale and their upturned roots stood gaunt and high in 

 the air, we ever and anon came across the nest of the 

 Dusky Robin placed in a sheltered spot among the gnarled 

 roots. These birds also like to build in the recesses of a 

 dead giant of the forest which has been burnt out, and here 

 in a ledge we found a nest with three olive-brown eggs, but in 

 nearly all cases the nests were empty, the young having not 

 long left them. They were flying about with their parents, their 

 mottled plumage distinguishing them from the more uniform 

 brown of the old birds. A nest with three eggs of the Dusky 

 Fantail was found, placed on the low horizontal branch of a tree. 

 Our rambles during the day were long and rough, as the 

 country is not opened up to any extent, and the deep gullies 

 are well-nigh impenetrable, the growth of huge tree-ferns and 

 bushy trees being so thick that daylight is quite subdued 

 beneath their leafy shade. Single leaves of the tree-ferns 

 measured 12 feet long from stalk to tip, and up their 

 moist and thickened trunks numerous small ferns and mosses 

 grow in rich luxuriance, the delicate green of these con- 

 trasting greatly with the dark brown, pithy trunks on which 

 they grow. Here the beautiful Pink-breasted Robin and the 

 Brown Scrub-Wren were seen. The melancholy boom of the 

 Brush Bronzewing Pigeon {PJiaps elcgnns) was heard, and in 

 such dense surroundings the notes were decidedly lonely and 

 uncanny, and as evening shades arrived came the still more 

 weird notes of the Spotted Owl. 



A sharp look-out was kept for the appearance of a Tree- 

 creeper which, it is stated, has been seen in these localities, but 

 which has not up to the present been properly substantiated, 

 but not a sign of the bird was forthcoming, although on more 

 than one occasion notes resembling a Tree-creeper's were heard, 

 but on finding out the bird in the leafy boughs of the eucalypts 

 it in every case proved to be the Black- headed Honey-eater ; 

 but should a Tree-creeper inhabit these localities it will in all 

 probability be allied to the White-throated species {CHniacteris 

 ieiicophcea), which is found in like country on the mainland. The 

 liquid notes of the Tasmanian Shrike-Thrush {Collyriochicla 

 fectirostris) were heard on every hand, and two species of 

 Thickheads were identified— /^«f/%j'^^//m/« glaucura and P. 



