28 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



Babblers, Tit-Warblers, Wrens, and other builders 

 of domed nests are exceptionally active from dawn 

 to dusk. It is an accommodating circumstance for 

 the bird-world of the neighborhood generally, and 

 for Wood-Swallows, Thrushes, and Whistlers in par- 

 ticular, that the communistic "happy families" of 

 Babblers the "Catties" and "Arcoes" of Victorian 

 bush boys are such early breeders; their large, 

 twig-built dwellings serve admirably later on as the 

 basis of many other bird-homes. 



But we may well be doubtful whether even the 

 Babbler is so typically August's bird as the Yellow 

 Shrike-Robin. This bright-eyed little study in yel- 

 low and grey was very sedate earlier in the year, 

 but now the bush is a-thrill with his agitated 

 whisperings. In other days, too, Robin was very 

 willing to fraternise with any human friend who 

 called in to his bush recesses. Not so just at pre- 

 sent. These are his busy days. Either there is a 

 partly-built little bark home awaiting completion, 

 or a brooding mother-bird to be fed, and he scarcely 

 has time to survey the bush-world from the side of 

 a sapling in that funny little way of his own. 

 Spring speeds on apace, and he is a wise individual, 

 bird or man, who makes the most of these vital 

 days, when the Spirit of Youth is abroad in the 

 land. 



