OF SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA. 23 



elude that the visits are paid alternately by the male and 

 female birds, for of twenty which I observed made to one 

 nest in an hour each sex made ten. If only one nestling is 

 supplied at a time, each of the five in the family would thus 

 be fed every fifteen minutes. 



After the young have quitted the nest for the first time, 

 they return during the heat of the day for several days 

 following. The pipe in the tree above the nest serves the 

 family as a night camp for 10 to 12 days after the young have 

 made their introduction to the outside world. The non-sitting 

 bird camps in a place apart from the nest during the period 

 the nest is tenanted. 



While the majority leave the district during the early 

 autumn, a few remain, and then the old birds sing or twitter 

 as well apparently as in the spring. It is not unlikely that 

 this is a training for the remaining young, in preparation for 

 the following spring or summer. 



Introduced Enemies. — The fox and cat from the mother 

 country cause considerable trouble among our birds. The 

 cat, at the moment, I have noted, is raiding the dry parts of 

 North- Western Australia just as the fox is doing in the 

 south-eastern portion. I know of a hall in a country house 

 in which a nest has been built by Swallows. Two nails below 

 the nest serve as perching places for the two birds. In six 

 weeks previous to 1st October 1898, seven birds were killed 

 by the cat that kept its place in this lobby. If one of a pair 

 was caught the mate would go away for a period varying 

 from one to three days, and then return with a consort. In 

 a day or more one of that pair would be captured, and away 

 the other would go for a mate and return with it. As to 

 which sex was killed my informant could not say, but I should 

 think the same one, and furthermore the stranger, thus 

 showing the persistency of one bird to follow up an idea, just 

 as one of the same specie? will start to rebuild its nest after 



