INSESSORES. 319 



settlers, and hops about their houses as if desirous to court, 

 rather than shun, the presence of man ; but when adorned 

 with his summer plumage, the male becomes more shy and 

 retiring, appearing to have an instinctive consciousness of the 

 danger to which his beauty subjects him ; nevertheless they 

 will frequently build theu' little nest and rear their young in 

 the most populous places. Several broods are reared annually 

 in the Botanic Garden at Sydney, and I saw a pair busily 

 employed in constructing their nest in a tree close to the door 

 of the Colonial Secretary's Office. The short and rounded 

 wing incapacitates it for protracted flight, but the amazing 

 facility with which it passes over the surface of the ground 

 fully compensates for this deficiency; its mode of progression 

 can scarcely be called running, it is rather a succession of 

 bounding hops, performed- with great rapidity: while thus 

 employed its tail is carried perpendicularly, or thrown forward 

 over the back ; indeed the tail is rarely, if ever, carried hori- 

 zontally. 



The breeding-season continues from September to January, 

 during which period two, if not three, broods are reared : 

 the young of one being scarcely old enough to provide for 

 themselves, before the female again commences laying : inde- 

 pendently of rearing her own young, she is also the foster- 

 parent of the Bronze Cuckoo {Chiysococcyx lucidus), a single 

 egg of wdiich species is frequently found deposited in her nest ; 

 but by what means, is (as in the case of its European prototype) 

 unknown. 



The nest, which is dome-shaped, with a small hole at the 

 side for an entrance, is generally constructed of grasses, lined 

 with feathers or hair : the site chosen for its erection is usually 

 near the ground, in a secluded bush or tuft of grass. The 

 eggs are generally four in number, of a delicate flesh- white, 

 sprinkled with spots and blotches of reddish brown, which are 

 more abundant and form an irregular zone at the larger ex- 

 tremity : they are eight lines long by five and a half broad. 



