126 Mr. R. Hall on Birds 



a large salt-bush was easily hidden by the structure for 

 which it formed a basis. Many of the nests were not more 

 than three feet high, but others were much larger, and all were 

 upon the ground. Mr. Gilbert spoke of a wonderful struc- 

 ture upon Rotnest Island being fifteen feet in circumference. 

 One of those I found measured at the base twenty feet 

 six inches, the top being only two feet from the ground, 

 and being forty inches across, with a depression for the 

 young of three inches. Living Salsolaceae were growing 

 upon three sides. Another nest upon an islet south-east of 

 East Wallabi Island of the Abrolhos may be described as 

 five feet six inches high, seven feet at the base, three feet 

 six inches across the top, with a depression of about four 

 inches ; it was cone-shaped with the apex sliced off, and was 

 composed of salt-bush branches regularly heaped up, having 

 dead pieces of coral and sponges interspersed. The nest had 

 salt-bush growing up one side. Within it were marine weeds, 

 sponges, and a few pieces of green plants. The whole 

 structure was practically a small stack of wood cylindrically 

 placed on end in the middle of a few acres of dead coral, 

 of which the island is almost entirely composed. 



The Osprey is referred to by Professor Newton ^ as a 

 daring bird, and one that, if possible, severely handles the 

 collector of its eggs or young. On that part of our coast 

 washed by the Indian Ocean the birds do not appear to 

 attack an intruder, and all that attracted my attention 

 when handling the young was their plaintive cry high above 

 the nest. 



3. Strepeba plumbea. Leaden Crow-Shrike. (Hall's 

 Key, p. 8.) 



Sk. ad. ,^. 3.10.99. Denmark River. 



The only specimen secured helps to support the view that 

 S. plumbea is a subspecies of S. cuneicaudata. For two 

 hundred miles northvvard this bird is commonly known as 

 " the squeaker." Young were in the nest on October 25th. 



* ' Dictionary of Birds,' p. 661 (1806). 



