Vol, 

 1903 



■j Stray Feathers. 1 77 



gullies on the opposite or eastern end of the Dandenong Ranges, 

 and there some charming glimpses were obtained of the bird 

 inhabitants of these humid and ferny recesses in the mountain 

 side. In spite of the raging bush fires of six years ago, which 

 must have destroyed bird life on an alarming scale, it was 

 pleasing to find that such unique birds as the Lyre-Bird {Menura 

 victorice) and the Pilot-Bird \Pycnoptilus floccosus) were still at 

 home in these fast-disappearing retreats. At more than one spot 

 were the strong-throated and peculiar calls of the male Lyre-bird 

 noticed. One place in particular, where the bird was whistling 

 alongside a noisy waterfall, offered an opportunity to creep up 

 and see the antics of the shy performer; but so keen is its sense 

 of sight as well as of hearing that the venture was not a success, 

 and the bird was found surveying the intruder — only for a 

 moment, however, for it turned and disappeared like magic along 

 a log. Young birds in rusty-coloured plumage and the females 

 are not so shy, for offspring and parent were seen one evening 

 quietly walking along a beaten track, and at another place were 

 discovered going to roost, just one hour after sundown, in a tall 

 blackwood (acacia) tree. This they ascended by walking 

 measuredly along one branch and hopping to another until they 

 felt themselves high enough tc be safe from their enemy the fox. 

 The Pilot-Bird, rowdy, active, and yet shy, is one of the remark- 

 able small forms of Victoria. It appears to be somewhat irregular 

 in its nesting habits. Though birds have been seen feeding fledged 

 young during the first week in November, yet eggs have been 

 taken at the end of January. Besides the Rufous Fantail 

 {Rhipidtira riififrons), which can usually be found during the 

 breeding season frequenting the shady gullies or offshoots, where 

 it builds its neat nest overhanging the water, on a dead twig, 

 there are two species of Robins, which can always be seen during 

 a ramble in a fern gully, and without which no description of the 

 inhabitants of such a cool retreat would be complete. Particu- 

 larly is the Petroeca rosea associated with the shady patches of 

 musk-tree and blackwood. The other species, P. phccnicea, is, 

 properly speaking, Tasmanian. It is the common Robin about 

 the city in winter, but when in September the greater number 

 congregate and migrate across Bass Strait to nest in Tasmania 

 and the adjacent islands it was thought that all had left. But of 

 late years it was found that a few pairs retire to the highlands 

 of the Dividing Range and its spurs, and there rear their young, 

 as proof that all the species do not migrate. These birds, though 

 they are found nesting in the more open eucalypts near the 

 crests of the saddles, generally are found feeding among the fern 

 trees. The smaller Rose-breasted Robin, however, is rarely 

 found outside the gully, where it rears its young in the cosiest of 

 nests, built of green moss, lined with fern down and fur, and 

 ornamented with bits of lichen, placed on a horizontal bough, or, 

 perchance, in an upright fork, near the stream. The nest itself 



