166 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



and cognate subjects are not neglected ; but the old love for the 

 birds is supreme. In the first letter we read :— " The most plenti- 

 ful of his kind is, perhaps, the Black-throated Crow Shrike (Crar- 

 ticus nigrogularis), who makes the bush resound with songs in 

 the mornings ; but my wife's particular bird-friend is a Black 

 Fantail, who flits about all day long, and even comes indoors ; and 

 many are the flies, spiders, and " nasty little things with nasty 

 little stings" which his keen eyes discover whilst seeing into 

 every nook and cranny. A Banded Finch has virtually joined our 

 establishment. When food was scarce he discovered that seed 

 was sometimes spilled from the cages of our pets, and now he 

 comes regularly, and has become very tame. He takes good care 

 not to inform his fellows and let them benefit by his sagacity. A 

 pair of Biue-faced Entomyzas dropped in one day and sat upon a 

 pale a few feet from our door. Graucidus melanops is a regular 

 visitor ; so, also, is his white-breasted kinsman. Two or three 

 varieties of Leatherheads frequent the adjacent bush, and their 

 peculiar — almost human — notes may nearly always be heard. 

 The large silvery-crowned one sits alone on a dead branch and 

 utters his far-reaching double note. We often hear the Swamp 

 Pheasant, or Coucal (Centrapus phasianus), whose note is some- 

 thing like the gobble of a turkey, but in a lower key and con- 

 tinued for a longer time. A pair of Wood Swallows have a nest 

 in an old dead limb quite near my house, and it seems to take 

 the male bird all his time to keep intruders away — an occupation 

 only varied by an occasional swoop after a beetle or fly. The 

 stunted tree which holds his nest is evidently a favourite with the 

 birds, and I am afraid Artamus has not been happy in his choice 

 of a home. The preference which birds exhibit for a certain tree 

 is surprising. The tree may not differ from its fellows to our 

 eyes, yet the birds show a marked preference for it, feed near it, 

 and take shelter in its branches. One such tree I remember in 

 Victoria — an old red gum, standing among many others. Near 

 the top a pair of Brown Hawks (Hieracidea berigora) had their 

 nest, whilst Tree Swallows and Pardalotes found a dwelling in 

 hollow limbs. Nor was this all : on moonlight nights I could 

 go to that tree perfectly certain of finding opossums among its 

 branches. Another tree was loved by parrots, and when disturbed 

 in a feast of ripening oats they always flew to its branches." 



The little Red-eyebrowed Finch (jEgintha temporalis) is a 

 neighbour, and nests in July. Wrens come too, some males of 

 the common northern red-backed variety being in full or " nuptial 

 plumage" the whole year round. August is a busy time with 

 Roseneath birds, as with our own. Black-headed Pardalotes (P. 

 melanocephalus) had been breeding for some weeks, and several 

 clutches of eggs taken. Bee-eaters had then become plentiful and 

 showed signs of nesting, though I do not find mention of eggs 



