OF SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA. 25 



throughout the year. The Fairy Martin has a distinct 

 partiality for those spots in which there is plenty of water, 

 yet they have been found to occupy almost dry creek beds, 

 where they build their nests, apparently without greatly feel- 

 ing the lack of moisture, for they thrive well, and rarelv leave 

 the immediate vicinity. 



The generic name originally applied to the Fairy Martin — 

 Lagenoplastes, from lagena, a bottle or flask — is specially 

 apropos, for the shape of their mud nests is that of a bottle, 

 with the neck facing outward. They are fastened to the side 

 of a cliff or under a bridge, and are usually associated in 

 colonies of from 20 to 40 nests, each one representing a pair 

 of birds. Evidently the birds return to their own particular 

 colonies in the spring, for each year the old nests are patched 

 up and used over again. Normally the birds work only in 

 the cool of the day— that is, in the early morning and 

 evening. 



A system of co-operation prevails in these merry colonies, 

 in so far as half a dozen birds will combine to build each 

 nest, placing them from 3 to 7 inches apart, and if at any 

 subsequent period a nest should happen to receive an injury, 

 the whole colony assist in the repairing process without a 

 thought of mine or thine. In less than fifteen minutes several 

 thousand mud " bricks " have been carried and plastered 

 together, and order has been restored. When finished the 

 interior of the nests is thickly Hned with grass and feathers, 

 thus providing a warm and cosy receptacle for the eggs and 

 later for the young. 



Mr. Price Fletcher, in a private diary, says : — " Unfortu- 

 nately this curious and closely constructed home is no pro- 

 tection against some of its feathered foes, for I have seen the 

 Red-rumped Kingfisher, instructed doubtless by its habit of 

 breaking into the tree-ants' nests in order to make a nesting 

 place for its own eggs and young, make persistent war on the 



