OF SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA. 83 



They seem to require teaching as to the manipulation of 

 the bulkier items of their food. 



Last summer Mr. Graham watched a mother give a young 

 bird a lesson. The latter was trying to reduce a large cater- 

 pillar to a condition fit for swallowing by beating it with the 

 bill. After a few strokes, to show how it should be done, the 

 mother would leave the young bird to finish. Sometimes the 

 object would be picked up and handed over without further 

 treatment, while at other times it vv^ould have to be repeated 

 often before the food was finally ready for swallowing. I 

 have observed these actions many times, and on one occasion 

 I spent at least 15 minutes carefully watching the method of 

 procedure. 



After leaving the nest, the young Vv'rens, male and female, 

 are ahke in outward appearance till the fifth month, when 

 the first moult takes place. After this the males are dis- 

 tinguished from the females, young or old, by their light blue 

 tails. These remain the outward symbol of their sex till the 

 second moult, in the tenth or eleventh month, when they 

 assume the full plumage of blues and blacks, with a still 

 darker blue tail. The bill also becomes a darker colour, and 

 finally is jet black. It wears this spring and summer suit 

 till the third moult, generally in February or early March, 

 when the change is to grey for a season more or less pro- 

 longed. 



With the older males there seems to be no regular time for 

 recovering their blues and blacks, as individuals can be found 

 moulting the grey from the middle of April to the end of 

 September. 



In August the family is disbanded, the males attacking and 

 driving away the younger members of their sex. The old 

 females do the same with the young females, though at a 

 slightly later period. 



Another token of the approach of the breeding season is 



