46 Bird Notes. 



young; warm, but when the cock comes she hops off, and while 

 he is giving- his tit bit to the young she gets going and leturns 

 quickly with some food. When coming to the nest both birds 

 give a low soft call of ''chick chick," whereupon the wee mites 

 instinctively hold up their heads to be fed. Now and again 

 the old bird picks up a small bit of excreta from the bottom 

 of the nest, not to drop it just outside, but flies away with it 

 for some distance. On several occasions I have had to repair 

 the nest, by tying it to the bough with pieces of string to prevent 

 it coming away on one side. 



January — Mr. J. W. Mellor reports — The month has seen 

 numbers of birds nesting, doubtless owing to the excessively dry 

 weather existing during the spring, followed by the bounteous 

 rains at Christmas, and again at the opening of the New Year. 

 On January 1, eleven rose-breasted cockatoos were seen 

 flying in a bevy amongst the red gums. 



The Southern White-plumed Honey-eaters that had their 



nest within several feet of my bedroom window on the slender 



twigs of an Ailanthus tree, brought out their young during the 



early part of the month, and on January 11, either the same 



pair, or another of like size and colouration started to construct 



their nest close by ; again on the leaves of a tree of heaven 



(Ailanthus glandiilosiis), within three or four feet of my 



museum window, and without ''fear or trembling" as it now 



sits and watches me examining my stuffed birds. Even as 



I write, the female is watching me at my work, knowing well 



that she is safer by far in her present position than she would 



be at a distance from my habitation. T noted the nesting 



operations when the first little piece of cobweb was twined 



around the stem of the leaf, and by the 18th, just seven days. 



the nest had been completed, both birds sharing in the work 



of building. Then followed several days of cessation, and on the 



22nd the first egg was laid, and the second on the 24th. The 



bird there began to sit and incubation has been going on slowly. 



The l)irds are never idle, as ever and anon one or the otiier will 



find the nest becoming thin, and will get beneath and sit upon 



a twig and take observations, then getting a little cobweb or 



cocoon silk will cling to the little cup shaped nest beneath, and 



with its sharp bill poke the little bits of soft packing into 



the small holes, and thus fill them up and make the home snug 



and warm for the offspring which soon must aj)])ear. 



A case of the advisability of leaving the old nests of birds 

 in sight came under my notice this month, when a i)air of bird*< 

 built tlieir cup shaped nest, suspending it from the ivy leaves on 

 an old building. The nes.t was completed in due course and 



