38 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The nests at times, though slight in structure, were generally 

 faithfully built of rootlets, or grasses, or more often twigs 

 and grasses, and in many cases artistically arranged, seldom 

 above six feet from the ground, and placed in all manner of 

 places, preference being given to perpendicular slight stems, 

 though nearly as often placed upon the horizontal firm twigs or 

 branchlets of assorted shrubs and bushes. One nest was placed 

 in the socket for a paddock slip panel, a second in a furze or 

 whin hedge, many in bushes of the same, in Leptospermum, 

 others in acacia wattles, and fewer in eucalypts, as far as this 

 district is concerned. 



That these two members are here in considerable numbers 

 may be deduced from the fact that forty nests — building, tenanted, 

 and vacated — were observed by the writer on the 16th of Decem- 

 ber within a mile, and nearly within the straight line lying between 

 its termini. Two orchards, a belt of furze or whin, and an almost 

 dry watercourse had to be passed through — or, rather, the creek 

 was passed over, not so the orchards. The nests were placed in 

 the orchards more numerously than in the legume whin, areas 

 being equal. Plum, pear, apple, and cherry trees received the 

 nesting honours. One nest was placed in a " sweetbriar," low to 

 the ground — that is, about two feet — in the township of Surrey 

 Hills. My chord of generosity was somehow struck, and I placed 

 a piece of basalt in the nest, in order that the birds would be 

 saved more serious distress later on. Next week the nest was 

 gone, and so would have been the eggs but for the stone. This does 

 not cast a reflection on Surrey Hills boys, for they are diligent. 



On a previous occasion I referred to the sensitiveness of this 

 bird : its hardihood is now the chief feature, for no less than 

 seven times was a nest in a young elm enclosed within a guard 

 destroyed, this being done to save restless boys from making 

 investigations and damage to the structural beauty of the tree. 

 Each time the nest was bodily taken away, leaving only a remnant, 

 the birds would persist in rebuilding it within the same fork, until 

 the seventh part edifice was destroyed, and I doubt not that they 

 then sought pastures new, for no further attempt was made in 

 that tree. 



Artamus personaius (Gould), Masked Wood Swallow. — As 

 with the previous member, it is insectivorous to a nicety, when 

 opportunity occurs showing full interest in an apiary and not 

 despising the odorous pear-slug, according to a neighbour market 

 gardener, who remarked " an odour so powerful that we are 

 obliged, when picking fruit, to keep to windward of greatly infested 

 trees, and leave them to the care of Hellebore and Summer 

 Birds." There is little doubt about the former, but I question 

 any special service by the latter. 



Spring sees a struggle in vocal development ; its usual rapid, 



