42 Prooeedings of the Royal Physical Society, 



until I was convinced the bird was a female Eegent (Sericulus 

 melinus). The tree in which the nest was built was small 

 but very thorny, and I could see there would be difficulty in 

 getting the nest. 



" When I thought the nest might contain eggs, I climbed 

 up a larger tree near, to the height of a few feet above the 

 nest, which I could not plainly see for the mass of intervening 

 prickly branches, but I managed to ascertain it contained at 

 least one egg. 



"Two days later, on the 16th November, I visited the 

 place at dusk, having with me a tomahawk, a pruning knife, 

 and a pair of climbing irons, such as are used for climbing 

 telegraph poles. As I approached the tree, the bird flew 

 from the nest, therefore I knew that the full clutch had 

 been laid. The nest was about 25 feet from the ground, and 

 on the tree in which it was placed was growing a bunch of 

 "Lawyer" vines (Calamus). I climbed the first distance up a 

 pole, which I placed against the tree, cutting my way up through 

 the thorns as I went, and thus reached the head of the tree. 

 The nest was an open structure of dry twigs, and I could 

 now plainly see the eggs through the bottom of the nest. I 

 then cut away the intervening branches before I could get 

 my hand through to the nest, which contained three eggs. 

 Placing two in my hat and one in my mouth, I reached the 

 ground safely." 



On the 19th December Mr Elvery found another nest 

 containing two eggs nearly fresh. This nest was built in 

 the head of a bush, around which was growing a mass of 

 "Lawyer" vines, and was about 12 feet from the ground. 

 On the 13th January following, he found a third Kegent's 

 nest containing a pair of eggs. Nest and eggs together with 

 the hen bird, which Mr Elvery shot, were presented to the 

 Australian Museum, Sydney. 



Breeding months, November, December, and January. 



