72 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



beauty of finish which could only be concluded after another three 

 days of busy work. 



I am able to make a record of another " nearly matured 

 misfortune," as a Narrow-billed Cuckoo placed an egg in this fifth 

 nest. Not that I wanted this last egg, but out of sympathy for 

 the blue wren, I took it away, and consoled the two or three 

 parties concerned, and with the additional thought that the 

 spring-nomadic bird was no further interested in the matter 

 unless possibly in the assembly that would meet for migration 

 at a later date. 



Wrens enjoy fun, especially with the young, and as there appears 

 to me to be very little humour in a juvenile cuckoo, what a con- 

 trast a brood in unity must be to one containing a stranger. 

 Fourteen days are occupied in incubation and the young fly from 

 the nest on the ninth to tenth day after " hatching out," and as the 

 eggs (three or four) are deposited on each successive day there is 

 uniformity in the stages. The food supply of one district being 

 richer than another will aid a quicker development, but where 

 insect larvae are fairly plump the industry of the parents will 

 always quickly supply the regular and constant wants in infantry 

 of this interesting nature. 



My notes on the Warblers can hardly be called complete 

 without a few remarks about a sturdy little bird that is better 

 known to cryptogamic botanists than to other collectors who are 

 not devoted to ornithology, because it is only while you are hunt- 

 ing quietly in that particular nature of timber which yields mosses 

 and lichens abundantly that one is likely to become thoroughly 

 acquainted with the White-fronted Sericornis, Sericomis frontalis, 

 V. and H. (W.) 



My last visit to the timber frequented by the Sericornis and other 

 forms enabled me to witness a little scene which showed me the 

 forms of gallantry on the part of the male Sericornis in his court- 

 ship are as intense as with the most chivalrous of other birds. 

 How those two males courtesied before the lady bird you could 

 not realize without a goodnatured smile, bowing deeply, stately 

 and continually as competition alone in the majority of cases 

 forces one or more to do. How the anxious matter terminated I 

 do not know ; doubtless the knight of better points won the day 

 and the other went afield for a second trial of his strength. 



The call and notes of the bird are sharp, clear, and decisive, 

 and the activity it displays leads it quickly from place to place, 

 principally under cover, but occasionally to one or other bush 

 track when all is quiet. 



The place of habitation for its young is lodged among the 

 coarse grass or overhanging twining plants on creek banks. The 

 moist spots are sought, and preference is given to ihem at all 

 times. During September of last year I found on the Altona 



