Vol. II. 



1902 



I Stray FeatJiers. 33' 



Marsh Terns and Grebes. — Of recent years the Marsh 

 Tern {HydrocJielidon hybrida) has been a regular visitor to the 

 Geelong district, haunting, during late spring and summer, 

 the lower reaches of the Barwon River and the wide, weed- 

 grown shallows of Lake Reedy, a marsh of some thousands 

 of acres on the north side of the river. Twice in past seasons 

 I had spent half a day in vain attempts to find the chosen 

 nesting-spot of the hundreds of dusky, fairy-like birds that 

 hawked constantly overhead. This season (1901) I was 

 successful. The 15th December was a warm day, making it 

 pleasant to wade in, through the cool water and long green 

 flowering plants of the marsh, towards the centre, where the 

 birds hovered thickest ; but the birds dispersed and I found 

 nothing, and so turned to the right, in continuance of the 

 circular route that I was following. In half an hour I was 

 three-parts back to the starting-point, and had given up the 

 search, when my eye was caught by something white on top 

 of the water among the short reeds in front. I walked over, 

 and picked up a dead Tern. It was lying across a nest plat- 

 form with broken egg-shells on it. A few yards away were 

 another nest and more shells, then another and another, till I 

 had found 40 or more, all with the beautiful mottled litter of 

 broken shells in or around them, save one, which held dead 

 young. The birds had flown from the rest. The nests were 

 built up from the bottom in water about 2 feet deep, the 

 upper part formed of dry stalks of slender reeds. On the out- 

 side edge of the colony I was surprised to discover a nest of the 

 Hoary-headed Grebe {Podiceps nestor) with three fresh eggs — 

 doubly surprised, because I had not seen a Grebe all the after- 

 noon, and because it was the first time I had ever observed any 

 trace of this bird in the district. Five minutes later I found 

 myself traversing a second and smaller group of empty nests 

 of the Marsh Tern ; and in its centre, not 10 feet from each 

 other, were two more Hoary-headed Grebes' nests, one with 

 three eggs and one with four. A fourth, further away, had only 

 broken shells. The nests were more roughly made than the 

 Terns', being composed of water-weeds thickly piled together, 

 and wet through from top to bottom. These Grebes must be 

 very cunning birds, for not so much as a ripple in the quiet 

 water did I see for sign of their presence, and yet the eggs were 

 fresh, showing by their varying shades from dirty white to brown 

 the order of their laying. Where the birds were hiding I could 

 not guess, but I wondered at their craft in this respect and at 

 the love of company — or is it a feeling of " safety in numbers ? " 

 — that makes them consort thus at nesting-time with the Terns. 

 — C. F. Belcher. Geelong. 



