82 



Chisholm, Notes o>i (he Yellow-bellied Shrike- L' it. 



r E.nu 



List Ocl 



mate, the male Shrike-Tit would feed the young, then sit, gasping, 

 with wings spread wide, to shield the brood from the rays of the 

 November sun. It was in connection with this pair that a 

 picture of photographic operations was taken. Though there was 

 good bush all about the locality, the capricious birds chose a 

 sapling close to a well-used main road, and there built at a height 

 of i6 feet. This was an extraordinarily low site for them to 

 select, and I fancied it must be a record until Miss Muriel Cheney, 

 R.A.O.U., informed me that she found a nest in the Wangaratta 

 (Vic.) district as low as lo feet. Such a departure is surely 

 remarkable, for the greatest factor in maintaining the security 



Yellow-bellied Shrike-Tits, Fledgeling and Adult c^. 



CHISHOLM. 



of the Shrike-Tit's nest is its inaccessibility. Little attempt is 

 made at concealment or protective coloration ; thus, when a 

 lofty situation is not chosen, the nest is in danger from enemies. 

 It is not surprising that the birds observed by Miss Cheney were 

 three times robbed by a cat ; the pair showed pluck (and, in- 

 cidentally, a characteristic of the species) in chnging to the one 

 place for so long. 



Sixteen feet was low enough to render a photograph possible, 

 and the " wireless station " (to quote a suspicious early-morning 

 cyclist) was put into operation on three successive days at dawn. 

 The birds were not at all shy ; they came back to feed the three 



