on some Tasmanian birds’ nests.



201



australis), a migrant, which usually comes to us in September.

The nest is generally placed in reeds, about 2 ft. above the water,

and is bound to three or four stems, which pass through the sides

of the structure ; the material is stems and leaves of aquatic plants,

or coarse grass. The lining is sometimes fine grass, sometimes the

soft down from seed-vessels of the “ bulrush ” or reed-mace. These

migrants are plentiful near Launceston, and build in the reeds

which line the North Esk River. The railway sheds are close to

the river, and the Reed-Warblers which nest in that vicinity avail

themselves freely of the cotton-waste used for cleaning engines,

quantities of which are strewed about outside the sheds. Mr.

H. C. Thompson showed me a nest composed almost entirely of

this soft, warm material. When in Victoria I was somewhat

surprised to find a nest of the Reed-Warbler at a height of eight

feet from thq ground, bound to two stout upright twigs of the

exotic shrub Sparmannia africana, Linn., close to the edge of a

lake. The nest was formed of grasses and lined with the seed

“ wool ” of the reed-mace ( Typha ). Another nest was found in

a clump of bamboo, 5 ft. above the water-line, where two smaller

shoots forked out from the main stem, and was tied to all three.

A third example was 4 ft. above the water, in a bamboo, and was

most unsymmetrical, one side being much bulged with a large knot

of fine grass which had been teasled out and then stuck there. The

structure was tied to four small stems, but not to the main one, and

contained two young birds, blind, and devoid of down, but with tiny

quills just beginning to sprout.


An interesting example of the supported nest was that of a

pair of Flame-breasted Robins ( Petroica phcenicea), found in the

second week of November while I was on a trip to Mount Arthur,

mentioned previously in connection with a pensile nest. The

Robins’ nursery occupied a niche, about 5 ft. from the earth, in the

trunk of a giant gum-tree, and was formed of fine bark strips and

lined with small feathers. We admired the manner in which the

architects (which were young birds, for the male was grey, like

the female) had brought tiny fragments of charcoal from the

interior of a burnt-out tree near by, and bound these round the out¬

side of their nest with cobweb. This caused the nest to harmonise


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