2 The Oologists' Record^ March i, 192 1. 



trees are only pollarded and have excellent hollows at the top of the 

 trunks. Others have deep hollows almost on the ground, where 

 two or three large trunks have grown out of the old stump, while 

 many have ideal hollows in the forks between large branches growing 

 upwards from stumps cut at varying heights above the ground. 

 We have therefore a diversity of excellent and attractive nesting 

 sites. " Agrobates " seems equally partial to the lot. 



In 1920 I recorded nests as follows : — Eucalyptus 41, orange i, 

 almond i, mimosa 17, and cactus 10. 



The majority of nests that I examined were well concealed, 

 and those in more open surroundings were, to say the least of it, 

 inconspicuous and hardly any were conspicuous and really obvious. 



Under this last category I could name several nests placed low- 

 in mimosa hedges which were as large as nests of the British Song 

 Thrush and could not possibly be overlooked. Another large 

 untidy nest was placed in the bare fork of a tiny almond tree, not a 

 foot above the ground, and was visible at a long distance, being at 

 the edge of a grove. 



When placed in cactus the nest is conveniently built in the angle 

 of a leaf or couple of leaves, growing slightly upwards from the 

 large woody trunk. I am sorry Captain W. M. Congreve should 

 have gone in for that very painful recreation of " cactus-crawling " 

 in South Spain, when searching for nests of this species, as I never 

 found these birds breeding in the centres of even the broadest 

 hedges, and their nests always placed on the outer edges, though 

 inconspicuous, were not hard to discover. The bird sits tight 

 and motionless and this helps to protect it except from the keenest 

 eyes. Often, when peering into the dark recesses of the thick 

 and parted foliage of a bushy eucalyptus, I have started back at 

 what I thought was a snake peering up at me. 



This bird with brownish head and yellowish eye-stripe, when 

 sitting in thick cover, has a habit of stretching its neck and twisting 

 it about in most snakelike fashion in the direction of the intruder, 

 and having failed to frighten him away by this pantomime then flies 

 off. I have practically never seen these birds during the operation 

 of nest building and they do not give away their homes by constantly 

 visiting them when the eggs are laid or when the hen is sitting. 



The nests are peculiar in that they are quite the most loosely 

 constructed of any species I have ever examined. They are not 



