NUMEROUS SMALL SUBJECTS 



then it disappeared forever. The general appearance of 

 the upper surface of the bird is a brownish green, while the 

 tail is black and the throat is a beautiful orange. To com- 

 plete its remarkable appearance, two long feathers project 

 far beyond the rest of the tail in a manner quite uncommon 

 amongst birds which inhabit districts so far south as does 

 the Bee-eater. 



In the restricted area of timbered country covered by 

 our observations three species of Robins make their homes. 

 Two of them are what are popularly termed Redbreast-5. 

 The most common of these is the Scarlet-breasted Robin, a 

 bird which, so far as colour is concerned, leaves the English 

 Robin, of which we have all read, very far behind. As a 

 matter of fact, when compared with our own Redbreasts, 

 the English bird does not merit the name. Its breast is of 

 a rusty colour, and not at all red, as we understand the term. 



The male Scarlet-breast is a beautiful bird. Its back 

 is a good glossy black, while a prominent white mark 

 appears on each wing. The breast is bright scarlet, and 

 the remainder of the underparts greyish white. It builds 

 freely in the timbered lands around Ferntree Gully, and we 

 discovered many nests during our week-end rambles. At 

 several of these we made attempts to photograph the adult 

 birds, but were never successful. At Evelyn, however, we 

 discovered a nest building in a pile of firewood stacked 

 ready for carting. On a very wet week-end a few weeks 

 later we paid a visit to the spot, and crawled up a hollow 

 log near by to wait for the weather to break. The weather, 

 however, was more inclined to break records than other- 

 wise, and we sat in misery. Furthermore, we were not 

 used to sitting still, and found it hard to endure. After a 

 couple of hours of that patent unbreakable weather, pecu- 

 liar to the hill country, we decided to leave our shelter. We 

 set up the camera before the nest, and soon found that, if 

 we did not appreciate shelter, the female Scarlet-breast did. 

 She sat very closely. Our only difficulty was the absence 

 of light and the presence of rain drops which persisted in 

 adorning the lens. The photograph we obtained was taken 

 under great difficulties, and we are rather proud of it. 



The usual daintiness of this bird's nest is not apparent 

 in the one pictured. It was unusually untidy and built in 

 an unusual position. The site generally chosen is the fork 

 of a medium-sized tree, and ten feet or so above the ground. 



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