Nests, Eggs, and Play-grouTids of Aicstralian Boioer-Birds, 39 



from an example taken from the oviduct of a bird shot 

 by Mr James Cockerell, the collector, many years ago. 



I found the luxuriant scrubs abounding with Eegent- 

 Birds, in fact they were as plentiful there as the Wattle-Birds 

 (Acanthochoera) about the Banksia groves of our southern 

 coast. I experienced no difficulty in procuring a few 

 specimen skins, and all that was necessary was to select 

 a balmy day and recline under a Canthium tree, where 

 the birds (males, in various stages of plumage, and females) 

 come to regale themselves on the bunches of hard yellow 

 berries. But although well aided by a hardy companion — 

 Mr W. T. Bailey — I prosecuted a vigorous and toilsome 

 search through dense labyrinths of humid scrub and thorny 

 brakes of prodigal growth, while the thick foliage of the 

 taller trees caused a perpetual twilight underneath, yet I 

 returned without the eggs. It was an experience akin to 

 seeking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. 



From evidence gained by dissection and otherwise, it 

 appeared that November was too early for the majority of 

 these birds. Just prior to quitting the district (19th 

 November) we detected a female Kegent-Bird carrying a twig, 

 and after much laborious work we succeeded in tracking her 

 through an entanglement of wild raspberries and stinging 

 trees, and were satisfied that she was building in a certain 

 bushy Buoyong {Tarrietia) tree, after seeing her return 

 several times, each time with a twig in her bill. Marking the 

 tree, we pointed it out to two young farmers, directing them 

 to send the eggs after us. Some weeks subsequently I 

 received a doleful letter stating they were unable to climb 

 the tree. However, the next month (the last week of 

 December) another farmer, Mr Robert Newberry, whose 

 scrub paddock I had scoured, following up my instructions, 

 found therein a Regent's nest containing a pair of fresh eggs, 

 which I had the pleasure of describing before the Royal 

 Society of Victoria on the 8th September 1892. The nest 

 was placed in the scrub about 15 feet from the ground, and 

 was observed by the bird sitting thereon. The structure was 

 of such a loose nature — merely a few twigs, etc., forming 

 a flat shelf — that it fell to pieces on removal from the tree. 



