The Oologists' Record, March i, 1921. 19 



of care, I would like to mention a few facts about the size of clutches. 

 Five eggs in Palestine is most unusual and not likely to be found 

 except in the beginning of the season, in fact, out of a very large 

 number of nests examined, I only came across a single clutch of five 

 eggs, and that curiously enough was the very first complete clutch of 

 the season. Sets of four are very common, but it is rather hard to 

 say whether four or three eggs is to be considered the normal clutch, 

 as threes are very common and of course preponderate later on in the 

 season, when it is also not uncommon to find a bird incubating only 

 a couple of eggs. I will just enumerate clutch numbers by months 

 and leave my readers to judge for themselves. 



May 1-15 ... 

 May 16-31 ... 

 June ... 



July 



* Two of these clutches were taken before the bird was known 

 to have finished laying. 



Next I will give a description of the nests and actual breeding 

 sites, but before doing so a short note of what is actually found in 

 an eucah^ptus grove is essential, as the uninitiated will probably 

 think of the huge trees which we commonly know as " Blue Gums." 

 As the forests of Palestine were for the most part cut down long ago, 

 the present day inhabitant of the coastal plain has to grow his own 

 fuel, so all over the plain amongst the orange and almond groves 

 are dotted copses and spinnies of eucalyptus, each usualh' a few 

 acres in extent. Directly the trunks of these trees have attained a 

 diameter of about a 'foot they are cut down at various heights above 

 the ground. I have seen trees treated in this way both at the 

 ground level and also as much as three feet above the ground and 

 stumps of any length of course continue to grow. The peculiarity 

 of the eucalyptus is that one has not destroyed the tree bv lopping 

 the trunk in this manner, and by careful cultivation and pruning, 

 after several years have elapsed, an entirely new trunk will be growing 

 out of the stump, and in time will attain the same dimensions and 

 almost completely join up with it. However, that is quite another 

 story, and I must get on with an account of the foliage which grows 

 out of these lopped trunks. In the first year or two it is very thick 

 and bushy, after which it grows taller and less profusely — then some 



