v°|- _^'] Slray Feathers. 43 



two eggs. Also observed nest of Native-Hen with set ol sixteen 

 eggs. Bird was sitting. 



2gth October. — In Dii)rose Lagoon found Bald-Coot's {Por- 

 phyrio melanonotiis) nest with set of eight eggs. This ])roved to be 

 a " combination clutch " —five of P. iiu'ldiiDiioliis and three of 

 Fitlica australis. 



1st November. -Cuikoo-Slirikc {(•raitcalus f^arvii'oslris) sitting 

 on four eggs. 



2nd November. — Another nest of sanu>, with four eggs. 



i()tli November. — In small lagoon on way to the Macquarie 

 River observed a Swamp-Hawk's {Circus gouldi) nest with five 

 eggs. Grebes [Podicipes poliocephalus) were also present. At 

 Macquarie River, amongst other nests, one clutch of the Native- 

 Hen contained twelve eggs. 



3rd September. — Flushed Snipe {G(illi)ut<^(> australis) on edge of 

 Sister's Lagoon, 4 miles west of Cleveland. 



23rd November. — Charlie Challis, one of my scholars, found 

 a Coot's {Fulica australis) nest with three eggs. Flushed sitting 

 bird from nest. 



27th November. — Found another Coot's nest in Dii)rose Lagoon. 

 Set four eggs, ist December, another bird on three eggs in small 

 unnamed lagoon. These Coots' nests are more tidy and more 

 compact than those of the Bald-Coot. 



0th November. — A Musk-Duck {Biziura lobata) made a nest 

 underneath a Swamp-Hawk's nest, and two eggs were in it on 

 above date. The Hawk's nest had been last inspected on ist 

 November, when it was apparently ready for eggs, but no Duck's 

 nest was underneath This Hawk's nest was started on 4th 

 October, and the first egg was laid on 22nd November. The 

 clutch was subsequently destroyed by the Crows (Ravens). 



6th November, — Disturbed a Tawny Frogmouth {Podargus 

 strigoides) which was sound asleep on the ground at the foot of 

 a tree. — (Miss) J. A. Fletcher. Springfield (Tas.), 23/2/11. 



Nesting of the Red Wattle-Bird {Acanthoclucra carunculata).— 

 A good many pairs of this large Honey-eater remained in our 

 district to breed, their favourite site for a nest being one of 

 the bunches of mistletoe [Loranthus) which grow so plentifully 

 in the big box trees {Eucalyptus) of Gippsland Out of five nests 

 which we visited, four were so placed, and were at a height of 18 

 to 25 feet ; the exception was built at a height of about 10 feet 

 from the ground in a small sheoak (Casuarina) close to our paddock 

 fence on one side and to the road on the other — a road along 

 which timber-waggons, drays, and springcarts, besides pedestrians, 

 daily passed. The nest was placed in a niche where a small 

 branch sprang upwards and outwards from the main stem, and 

 was so secluded among the slender, drooping branchlets that it 

 was quite invisible until one mounted the top rail of the fence and 

 thrust one's head in among the branchlets. I timed the period 



