40 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



it was easy to separate the black-spotted white eggs 

 of the Oreoica from the rich-brown-spotted trea- 

 sures of the Thrush. The prettiest eggs of the kind 

 I ever saw were a complement of three housed in a 

 novel situation, the bank of a bush creek, to wit. 

 The Thrushes have no burrowing powers, but they 

 had nicely cleaned out an old hollow in the steep, 

 dry bank of the streamlet, and woven bark therein 

 a neat nest, and quite out of sight. But the keen 

 yes of boys found it, and the three eggs were taken. 

 Then the Thrushes built again, at a point only six 

 yards from the old site; this time the nest, though 

 very cosily made, was visible from the opposite 

 bank. It was found by the boys, who showed it to 

 me; and certainly they deserved commendation for 

 forbearance, the eggs being the most beautifully- 

 marked trio I had seen among very many Thrushes' 

 homes. 



In another of these capricious birds' nests under 

 observation at that time, from which the three 

 young ones got safely away, the usual material of 

 bark was discarded, and the structure built of 

 grasses, woven into the cleft of a stump, and plas- 

 tered together with mud. 



If it is not the nest of a Thrush that rewards your 

 fossicking about the bushy stumps in September, 

 the chances are that a brooding Regent Honeyeater 

 will be disturbed. This pretty sprite in yellow and 

 black has given over now its Winter revels among 

 the blossoms. There are more serious things to 

 think of, and the beautifully melodious voice is not 

 often heard unless a mother-bird be flushed from 

 one of the neat bark homes a cross between the 



