Vol; xv.T Dove, Some TasmcDiian Birds' Nests. 2,A1 



bark intermixed with a few very line rootlets. In this soft cradle 

 reposed no fewer than five pure white eggs (the usual clutch is 

 four) of a somewhat rounded shape, heavily incubated ; we 

 replaced them, and covered in the chamber as we had found it. 

 The male bird had left the Inirrow as we approached, showing that 

 he takes some part, at any rate, in the incubation. 



During the last week of October a tunnel of the Spotted 

 Pardalote was investigated near the Devil's Punchbowl, Northern 

 Tasmania. A nest was found ready for eggs in the terminal 

 chamber, and was, as before, a sphere of fine gum bark, with side 

 entrance. On another occasion, while exploring the vicinity of 

 Distillery Creek, in the Launceston district, we encountered a 

 large tree which had fallen during a gale, and which still had a 

 quantity of soil packed into the hollow of the butt. Into this 

 mass of earth a Pardalote had burrowed, and in the chamber at 

 the end had formed a nest of dry grass, which was vacant. The 

 bore was in just such a situation as depicted in Campbell's " Nests 

 and Eggs of Australian Birds " as the breeding-place in Queensland 

 of the Black-headed Pardalote, where the tunnel is driven into 

 the soil still adhering to the butt of an overturned forest giant. 

 It is contrary to the usual practice of the Spotted Diamond-Bird 

 in Tasmania to construct its nest of grass, therefore the example 

 cited above may possibly have been that of the Yellow-tipped 

 Pardalote (P. a finis), or, in vernacular, the " Tree Diamond," 

 because it generally utihzes a hole in a tree-trunk or branch, often 

 at a considerable height, in which to place its grass nest. But 

 it is said occasionally to make an earth bore, therefore it is possible 

 that the tunnel among the upturned roots may have been the 

 work of that species. As there were no eggs, nor could we see 

 any birds about the trunk, it was not possible to make certain. 

 The Yellow-tipped Pardalote is the lively little bird which appears 

 in numbers in the springtime among the big eaculypts, calhng 

 incessantly " Pick-it-up ! pick-it-up ! " or, as some interpret the 

 notes, " Wit-e-chu." While Hving in the forest near Table Cape, 

 North-West Tasmania, I used to notice about the same time each 

 spring this familiar call resounding among the trees where it had 

 not been heard all through the winter months, and from this fact, 

 and not seeing any of the birds themselves, I believe the Yellow- 

 tipped species to be a migrant, although the Spotted Pardalote 

 [P. ptmctatus) stays with us all the year. The Pipit {Anthtis 

 atistralis), popularly known as the " Ground-Lark," certainly does 

 leave us in autumn, and reappears just about the same time in 

 spring as the " Tree-Diamond," which is strong presumptive 

 evidence in favour of the latter's migration. The Pipit is another 

 of our ground-builders, constructing its cup-shaped nest of grass 

 in a depression of the earth, usually under a tuft. This species 

 has a curious sibilant note, something like " Sssssiou," and its 

 song, delivered during a short ascending flight, partakes of the 

 same sibilant character ; the descent is accomplished by a slanting 

 glide with wings outspread. It is one of our most familiar birds ; 



