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THK VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



situated between the top and the side, the structure appearing to 

 have been abandoned before completion. Can any member say 

 whether Ring-tailed Opossums ever make nests of bracken fronds, 

 and of this shape, as the nest described was not familiar to us ? 

 This was near a tea-tree marsh, wheie a pair of White-shafted 

 Fantails, Rhipidura albiscapa, were building in an adjacent scrub. 

 One nest of a Honey-eater we found cleverly hidden in a stunted 

 banksia, which grew almost concealed by a eucalypt shrub, the 

 nest being about a foot from the ground, and containing two 

 fresh eggs of slightly different size, shape, and marking. The 

 bird flew off so swiftly on being disturbed that we were unable to 

 identify it. This was well up the N.E. slope of Mt. Oberon. 



" We observed both kinds of Swifts — the ' Spine-tailed ' and 

 the 'Australian' — wheeling in all directions. In a banksia grove 

 we flushed three Frogmoulhs from a resting-place on the ground, 

 where they were sheltered by an overhanging shelf of a charred 

 log, and which in the glare of sunlight were almost too stupid to 

 fly away — in fact, one allowed us to approach within a few feet 

 before resuming its clumsy and noiseless flight. 



" In the grass land Quail were fairly common, usually in flocks 

 of about half a dozen, both Stubble and Brown. 



" Grey Jays, Strepera cuneiccnulata, were often seen in the 

 vicinity of our camps in fair numbers, and their loud notes were 

 some of the first sounds to be heard in the early morning. 



" The Boobook Owl was heard almost every night uttering its 

 dismal cry, usually about the trees near our tents — nocturnal 

 serenades not altogether appreciated by sleepy naturalists. 



" Towards sunset what sounded like a Bittern's loud booming 

 issued from a neighbouring tea-tree swamp, but we never got near 

 enough to the locality to identify the bird." 



List of Avifauna. 



Chthonicola 



Circus gouldi, Bon. 

 Accipiter cirrhocephalus, Vieill. 

 Uroaetus audax, Lath. 

 Haliaetus leucogaster, Gmelin 

 Ninox boobook, Lath. 

 Strepera cuneicaudata, Vieill. 

 Grallina picata, Lath. 

 Collyriocincla harmonica, Lath. 

 Rhipidura albiscapa, GId. 



tricolor, Vieill. 

 Micrceca fascinans, Lath. 

 Malurus cyaneus, Ellis 

 Acrocephalus australis, Gld. 

 Geocichla lunulata, Lath. 

 Megalurus giamineus, Gld. 

 Acanthiza pusilla, Lath. 



chrysorrhoa, Quoy and Gaim. 

 Sericornis frontalis, Vig. and Hors. 

 Psophodes crepitans, Vig. and Hors. 



ttata, Lath. 

 Ephlhiaraira albifrons, Jardine and 



Selby 

 Gymnorhina leuconota, Gld. 

 Cracticus destructor, Temm. 

 Eopsaltiia australis, Lath. 

 Pachycephala gutturalis. Lath, 

 Zosterops ccerulescens, Lath. 

 Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris, Lath. 

 Meliphaga phrygia. Lath 

 Melithreptus lunulatus, Shaw 

 Myzomela sanguinolenta, Lath. 

 Acanthochara carunculata. Lath. 



mellivora, Lath. 

 Pardalotus punctatus, Temm. 

 Hirundo neo.xena, Gld. 

 Petrochelidon nigricans, Vieill. 

 Anthus australis, Vig. and Hors. 

 Chsetura caudacuta, Lath. 



