40 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



fibrous roots were with ease available invariably they were used, 

 and the results were compact nests, neatly arranged. The birds 

 gather the constructive material in the vicinity of the place chosen 

 for the nest, and seemingly do not care to move away from it. 



A typical example is easily noticed in the case where a fence 

 divides an orchard from a gorse field ; for on the orchard side 

 ten yards from the fence you will find nests constructed wholly of 

 fruit tree fibrous rootlets, while on the gorse side each nest within 

 the same distance is composed of grasses and twigs that can be 

 gathered amongst them. There are, of course, exceptions. 



Three characters of combinative material appear to be used, 

 though they pertain possibly more to local influences and may 

 have but little weight in a limited study of the nests of the 

 Artamidse : — i. In orchards : rootlets of the trees of same, inter- 

 nally fine, but with coarse mantling. 2. In lightly timbered 

 paddocks ; grass-stems principally, chlorophyll bearing before 

 completion, with occasionally a few horsehairs. 3. In well- 

 timbered country : twigs of the trees, with a finer internal lining 

 of linear leaves. 



The bowls of all the nests are similar in dimensions, but those 

 of the complete structure may vary occasionally to twice the 

 normal measurements. The positions, as with the previous 

 species generally range about six feet, and often enough only two, 

 from the ground. Nests are placed higher in occasional places 

 here, but, with the exception of Pinus insignis and a few species 

 of eucalyptus, the rule is "low to mother earth." The two species 

 build promiscuously, favouring a break of low shrubs which is 

 used for this purpose, the nests being placed in prominent 

 positions, each species as a whole keeping together, but inter- 

 mixed in both cases with several of the other incubating in their 

 midst. 



By the middle of December many of each species were pre- 

 paring homesteads for the third brood, and seldom do they use 

 the nests of a past family for a future one. Late builders were 

 observed in the early portion of this month (January) carrying 

 twigs. After sundown those birds not engaged in the night tasks 

 cf caring for the young or eggs congregate in bodies from 10 to 

 15 close to each other in a tree or shrub convenient to the nests 

 and near the ground. It may be a large fruit tree, a sweetbriar 

 bush, or one of many other vegetable forms. 



With both kinds I find an egg is deposited each day, and the 

 clutch hatch out within twenty-four hours of each other on the 

 twelfth day of sitting, and the young of the two species fly upon 

 the eleventh or twelfth day from hatching, subject to a slight 

 variation in a number of broods. 



This season having proved a specially favourable one, these 

 notes have been jotted down from observations made in the 

 district lying between Box Hill and Burwood. 



