THE BUSH HUT 19 



prettiest and neatest bird home we had seen : roughly 

 pear-shaped, made of a felt-like mixture of gray- 

 coloured, downy plant substance, spiders' cocoons, etc., 

 and with a narrow side entrance, which enlarged as 

 the two nestlings grew to bird's estate. It was about 

 three inches in length, the width being slightly 

 less, and swung from a slender branch ten feet from 

 the ground. We fixed the camera on the apex of a 

 pyramid made of old fence rails, focussed on the nest, 

 and went to cover behind a large bush, thirty feet 

 away. Nearly half an hour passed before the parent 

 birds ventured to approach. The mother came first. 

 She flew on to a branch, just above the nest, gazed at 

 the camera, and showed signs of indecision. But love 

 conquered fear, and soon the Flower Pecker left her 

 perch and clung to the side of her home. She thrust 

 her head inside, and began cleansing operation. The 

 slight noise when the camera shutter was released sent 

 her off to a tree close by; within ten minutes she re- 

 turned, this time with a beak full of food. In the 

 course of an hour she made many trips to and from the 

 nursery; and we exposed a dozen plates Once only 

 the male bird alighted in the sapling; he declined to 

 come within range of the lens. A week later we 

 visited the spot again, to find the fledglings out in the 

 world. One was captured, and the mother flew on to 

 the hand in which it was held. 



We established friendly relations with the Dia- 

 mond Birds. Birds of the tree tops, small and ex- 

 quisitely coloured, their delicate clinking notes were 

 heard more often than the Pardalotes were seen. One 

 species, the Red-tipped Pardalote [Pardalotus 

 striatus], nested in hollows in dead branches, 

 or reared its broods underground. The nest of 

 the Spotted Pardalote [Pardalotus punctatm], placed 

 in a little domed chamber at the end of a tunnel about 

 a foot in length, is cup-shaped, and composed of fine 

 shreds of bark or dry grass stems. From four to 



