386 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



that it never visits the forests, nor have I ever seen it perching 

 on the branches of the trees. It does not even resort to them 

 as a resting-place for its nest, but suspends it to the ceilings 

 of caverns and the under surface of overhanging rocks in a 

 manner that is most surprising ; the nest, which is of an 

 oblong globular form, and composed of moss and other 

 similar substances, is suspended by a narrow neck, and 

 presents one of the most singular instances of bird-archi- 

 tecture that has yet come under my notice. 



It was one of the birds which excited the notice and 

 interest* of Mr. Caley, who, in his ' Notes,' says, " Cataract 

 Bird] an inhabitant of rocky ground. While at the waterfall 

 of Carrung-gurring, about thirty miles to the southward of 

 Prospect Hill, I saw several of them. I have also seen them 

 in the North Rocks, about a couple of miles from Paramatta." 



Mr. Ramsay, in his " Notes on Australian Birds," published 

 in the 'Ibis' for 1863, states "that the Rock Warbler is a 

 very pleasing and lively little bird, and seems to love 

 solitude. I have never seen it perch on a tree, although I 

 have spent several evenings in watching it. It runs with 

 rapidity over the ground, and over heaps of rubbish left by 

 floods, where it seems to get a good deal of its food. Some- 

 times it will remain for a minute on the point of a rock, then, 

 as if falling over the edge, repeat its shrill cry, and dash off 

 into some hole in the cliffs. 



" The nest is of an oblong form, very large for the size of 

 the bird, with an entrance in the side about two inches wide. 

 It is generally suspended under some overhanging rock, and 

 is composed of fibrous roots interwoven with spiders' webs ; 

 the bird evincing a preference for those webs which contain 

 the spiders' eggs, and that are of a greenish colour. The moss 

 does not assume the shape of a nest until a few days before it 

 is completed, when a hole for entrance is made, and the 

 inside is warmly lined with feathers ; but when finished, it is 

 a very ragged structure, and easily shaken to pieces. The 



