OF VICTORIA. 



though more broken and feeble, and the second of fear. 

 The latter was the result of being away from its nest 15 

 minutes. This bird we endeavoured to domesticate, but 

 without success ; it refused to eat. The eggs varied in 

 markings slightly, with a deep or light ground colour ; one 

 egg in a set of three had the zone of spots at the narrow 

 end, the other two were normal. They differed on the 

 average only a shade in dimensions, and in the number to 

 a clutch from four to two. Of twelve nests observed, 

 three contained four eggs, six three eggs, three two eggs ; 

 all well incubated. The nests about here, though slight in 

 structure, were generally faithfully built of rootlets or 

 grasses, or more often twigs and grasses, and in many 

 cases artistically arranged. They were seldom above 6 

 feet from the ground, and placed in all manner of places, 

 preference being given to perpendicular slight stems, 

 though nearly as often placed upon the horizontal firm 

 twigs or branchlets of assorted shrubs and bushes. One 

 nest was placed in the socket for a padlock slip-panel, a 

 second in a furze or whin hedge, many in bushes of the 

 same or in Leptospermum, others in acacia wattles, and 

 fewer in eucalypts, as far as this district is concerned. 



That these two members were here in considerable num- 

 bers may be deduced from the fact that 40 nests, building, 

 tenanted, and vacated, were observed by the writer on the 

 16th December within a mile's walk, and nearly within the 

 straight line lying between its termini. Two orchards, a 

 belt of furze or whin, and an almost dry watercourse had to 

 be passed by. The nests were placed in the orchards more 

 numerously than in the legume whin, the areas being equal. 

 Plum, pear, apple, and cherry trees received the nesting 

 honours. One nest was placed in a " sweetbriar " low to the 

 ground, that is about 2 feet from it, in the township of 



4 



