34 THE USEFUL BIRDS 



leafy vegetation, and produce a din which one would scarcely 

 expect from such small and graceful birds. The harsh, sharp, 

 powerful chirps, continuously repeated, grate unpleasantly on 

 the nerves of anyone in the vicinity, offering a sharp contrast 

 to the quieter notes of the sobered parents 21 days later. I 

 remember a large flock of the Swallows taking possession of a 

 cluster of timber in which were a Black Fantail, its mate, 

 nest and eggs. Only occasionally could the little bird be 

 heard during the day. It was only after the Swallows had 

 retired for the night that the sweet notes of the Fantail 

 could be heard with any force. 



Two weeks after their arrival in the South, the Wood- 

 Swallows show a wish to commence nest-building. The more 

 rapid workers complete their structures in one or two days, 

 and others, more dilatory, and exhibiting, like many human 

 beings, a strong desire to introduce play into their work, 

 delay the completion for several days. 



I discovered a clutch of eggs on 8th November, though 

 many birds, still in flock, had not commenced to build on 

 17th of the same month. Young birds were noticed on the 

 wing as early as the 23rd. The nestlings amusingly imitate 

 their parents in the perpetual horizontal and perpendicular 

 movements of the short- plumaged tail, proving in this way 

 the force of inherited habit. 



A fledgling which I took from a nest announced its removal 

 by two calls, one imitative of the general note of the mother, 

 but more broken and feeble, and the second, emitted after it 

 had been away from the nest 15 minutes, of fear. This bird 

 I endeavoured to rear, but without success ; it refused to eat, 

 and, in consequence, died in a few days. 



The eggs mentioned above varied in markings shghtly, with 

 a deep or light ground colour ; one egg in a set of three had 

 the zone of spots at the narrow end, the other two were 

 normal. They differed on the average only a shade in dimen- 



