Vol. IX. 

 igio 



] Dove, The Blue Wren of Tasmania. ^53 



is somewhat peculiar that the Malurus should disregard this 

 aspect in building; perhaps it is the desire to secure a sunny 

 entrance which prompts the fronting to the quarter just noted. 



This second nest of the Blue Wren was finished about a fort- 

 night before the first o.^^ was laid, on the 27th September. 

 Several of our small birds are fond of leaving the new abode for 

 a week or two in this way, as if to indulge in a final honeymoon 

 frolic before settling down to the serious business of married life. 

 The second egg was laid on the 28th, and the third on the 29th 

 September. There were three blind, naked young on 13th 

 October, the incubation thus lasting 15 days, as in the first 

 case. On sixth day the eyes were open and head, body, and 

 wings covered with the sprouting quills, apparently blue-black 

 as before. When I disturbed them on 23rd October, ten days 

 after hatching, they left the nest hurriedly, obeying the excited 

 parents' calls, and went, half flying, half scrambling, through the 

 big Xerotes tussock in which their home was placed. They 

 followed well the call of the old birds, although, of course, they 

 had never been out of the nest before. The plumage was brown 

 on the upper surface, light grey beneath, without a trace of blue 

 on the tail. The plumage, although now brown, appeared quite 

 blue-black when growing, and the bases of the feathers still have 

 that appearance after the young are fledged. 



The female Wren, as already mentioned, does all the building 

 and incubation, and she has a remarkable habit, when disturbed 

 on the nest, of precipitating herself to the ground, where she 

 runs with the back humped up, wings trailing almost on the 

 earth, and tail bent down at an angle instead of being carried 

 aloft in the usual jaunty fashion. In this attitude she appears 

 to be a very sick bird indeed, if a bird at all. The first time I 

 saw the trick performed was on approaching from the back, when 

 I got very close to the nest before the female was aware of ray 

 presence. She immediately slipped to the ground through the 

 tussock blades and ran with such rapidity that I was fully con- 

 vinced a mouse or young rat had invaded the nursery for the 

 purpose of purloining the eggs, and gave chase with my stick ! 

 Many times since has the same ingenious device been adopted to 

 lure me away from the eggs or young. We know that the 

 Dusky Robin of our island and the White-fronted Chat will 

 adopt much the same tactics to entice an intruder from the 

 proximity of their nurseries, but they are much more deliberate 

 in their acting, whereas with the Wren one sees only a brown 

 streak from nest to ground, and even after reaching the earth the 

 Wren manages to shuffle along at a good rate in her queerly 

 constrained attitude. Another interesting trait of the female is 

 that in spring time she will often mount to the top of a small 

 piece of scrub and sing a strain very like that used by her mate, 

 but not so loud or passionate. 



