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The Nesting of the Pilot Bird



decided before we left that as the birds looked such promising subjects

for the cameras, we would devote the next day to photography. We

arrived at the nest early next morning, and the birds, as before, were

hand tame. Their habit, however, of bringing food only once in

20 minutes or so did not give us many opportunities for exposures,

especially as they fed the young and departed quickly. We finally

tried an old scheme of ours, which as a rule proves effective with dome¬

shaped nests. We blocked the entrance up with paper. The parents

on arrival were rather surprised, but it served our purpose well, keeping

them around the nest looking for the opening. From this on we had

unlimited opportunities during the day, but owing to our inexperience

with the cameras at that time the results were rather poor, the two

photographs reproduced being the total of many plates exposed. We

greatly regretted the fact that this was the last day of our stay, as we

would have liked to have devoted more time to the study of these

interesting birds.


We located our next nest at Ferny Creek, in the same district, the

following season. It was built at the base of a clump of sword-grass,

a common situation for these birds to choose, and contained two

eggs. It was only after considerable time and patience were expended,

however, that we succeeded in tracking the birds to their nest. They

had not commenced to sit, and we had to give up the idea of photo¬

graphy until a later period. We visited the nest when the young had

hatched, and as in the previous case the visits of the parents with food

were some distance apart. The weather on this occasion was very

doubtful, being inclined to rain, a by no means uncommon occurrence

in this district at any time of the year, as we have frequently found

to our cost. Indeed, it always seemed to us to rain in these parts when

we had some interesting subject on hand. Of course, with our simple

apparatus dull weather is fatal, sunlight being necessary for the short

exposures we make.


We found, as before, it was necessary to close the entrance of the

nest to keep the parents close by. The food for the young on this

particular occasion was large moths, and it was most amusing to see

how indignant the adults were when they found they could not get to

their chicks with food. They got so taken up with trying to find the



