Vol. XV.1 Cm-^uuLM, Notes on the YelloLv-ln'llicd Shyike- 111. 85 



chicks almost ininiediatoly tlu' camera was in position. Decidedly, 

 the opportunity for photograi)hiag the birds at home was 

 magnificent, but wind and sun interfered on two occasions, and 

 when we went for a third time — with the elements as favourable 

 as one could wish — we found an emi)ty nest and wailing parents. 

 Earlier in the hunt for Shrike-Tits' nests I had endured with 

 equanimity a fall from a tree-top, the breakage of a camera, and 

 sundry other " incidentals," but this latest failure was a profound 

 disappointment. 



Speaking of episodes of a more or less tragic nature, it is a 

 curious thing that, though Shrike-Tits customarily build in finely 

 safe positions, they occasionally fail to bring forth a brood. What 

 persuades the birds sometimes to desert a completed nest for days 

 at a stretch it is hard to suggest, and it seems just as difficult to 

 find a reason for some of their dwellings having a ragged hole 

 torn in one side. I have found two nests so treated, and deserted. 

 The only thief I ever saw at a Shrike-Tit's nest was a spiteful 

 Honey-eater, which, when I was coming down after vainly 

 endeavouring to peep into a tree-top home, flitted up and stole 

 some of the soft material. Shrike-Tits are usually very suspicious 

 when building, and, if they see an observer at a nest which has 

 just been started, will desert it immediately. In the case where 

 I knew this to happen there was, however, a suspicion that the 

 female did not approve of the site chosen, for she became very 

 dilatory about the work, and stayed away so long that the male 

 became excited, and called in admonitory tones till his mate 

 returned. On another occasion (22nd November, 1914) a female 

 Shrike-Tit with nesting material in its beak saw me, and remained 

 perfectly still for a long time. I tired first, and did not find the nest. 



Whether more than one brood is reared I do not certainly know, 

 but it would seem that an occasional pair goes further than the 

 September-December period, and nests well into the new year. 

 For instance, as late as mid-May, in 1914, a sober-coloured young 

 Shrike-Tit was seen, adjacent to Maryborough, following a male 

 parent about the trees, meanwhile tremulously fluttering its wings 

 and calling most plaintively. It was seen again a few days later, 

 in company with three brighter-coloured adults, looking after 

 itself for the most part, but now and again trying to impose on 

 the hard-working adults by uttering quavering notes and 

 quivering its wings. Later, the same day, a soft Tit-like note 

 led me to inspect a thin, i6-feet high saphng. There, to my 

 astonishment, I found, not two, but five Shrike-Tits sleeping on 

 the outermost fringes of the thin branchlets, and exposed to the 

 rising moon. Four of the birds had the fluffy, creamy-yellow 

 breasts of young, but the fifth was a handsome female — yellow 

 breast and green throat. It was a novel sight to see these active, 

 vivacious birds perched so reposefully — indeed, with so many 

 young the find was a novel one altogether. It is hardly likely, 

 I think, that the four young birds belonged to one brood ; 

 possibly they were outcasts from two pairs, and just taken in 



