BIRDS OF OUR BUSH 



seen, were simple cup-shaped structures. It contained 

 three eggs, flesh-coloured, and very closely marked with 

 small red spots. 



Misfortune disfavoured our attempt a couple of weeks 

 later to obtain pictures. All we succeeded in getting was 

 a ducking. 



The following year we located another nest in the same 

 locality. The three young birds which it contained were 

 so well advanced that they slipped silently into the rushes 

 before we had time to anticipate their intention. That 

 there should be a great deal of difficulty in capturing young 

 birds but two minutes after they had left the nest, and in 

 a reed bed of small dimensions, may be diflftcult for the 

 reader to realise. We would not have been able to realise 

 it either had we not experienced it. Even at this early age 

 the young birds had developed all the artfulness of their 

 parents, and it was not till three hours had passed that we 

 succeeded in capturing two of the three. The other one we 

 could not find anywhere. The secret of their elusiveness 

 lay in the fact of their protective coloration and their 

 silence. The two youngsters which were eventually cap- 

 tured, we found crouched down at the water's edge under 

 the overhanging bank. The movements of the parents led 

 to their undoing. 



By the time we had accomplished these two captures, it 

 was far too dark for camera work, and we were faced with 

 the necessity of either liberating our spoil or of taking 

 them home with us — a distance of three miles or so. As 

 we did not wish to have a repetition of our troubles, we 

 decided on the latter course. They reposed quietly in a 

 boot box in our bedroom all that night. 



Very little after daylight they again found themselves 

 on their native heath, needless to say minus their liberty. 

 The parents made little demonstration at their return, but 

 to our intense relief set about at once filling two aching 

 voids which must surely by that time have been somewhat 

 of a discomfort to their owners. We allowed them some 

 little time to recuperate, and then set about photography. 

 The pictures we eventually obtained cost four or five hours 

 of perspiration and patience. 



Our experience pointed out one notable difi'erence 

 between the habits of the Grass Bird and those of most 

 other species. Most birds we have found to prefer using 



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