64 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



For a half -fledged bird to desert its cosy nest on 

 slight provocation is no more usual than it is natu- 

 ral. The case of well-feathered babes is different. 

 Tiny wings may have been beating the air for 

 several days without their owners stirring one- 

 feather's-breadth from home; then, impelled by 

 sudden fright, they will fly strongly. The most 

 notable instance of the kind recalled at the moment 

 concerns a family of the pretty black and white 

 Lalages. In the heat of a November day three 

 young birds sat straight up in their tiny nest pos- 

 sibly so for comfort, but probably because in that 

 position their little grey bodies resembled closely 

 the branchlets of the apple-tree in which the nest 

 was built. And, as soon as a fraternal hand ap- 

 proached them, the three youngsters took their first 

 flight. In most cases this is fluttering and short- 

 lived "creep afore ye gang," as the Scotch lullaby 

 has it but these three flew strongly, one (obviously 

 the first-born) sailing right away over the tree-tops. 



With the Bell-bird and Lalage (Caterpillar-eater) 

 bracket the White-browed and Masked Wood- 

 Swallows and Red-capped and Black-and-White 

 Robins, and you have a half-dozen pretty birds 

 which may be found nesting in the forest areas of 

 central Victoria in the hottest of Novembers. It all 

 gets down, I suppose, to a strictly materialistic con- 

 sideration, i.e., that the particular insects favored 

 by these birds are more plentiful in a time of 

 drought. The sorry thing is that none of them 

 turns attention to the larva? of the slug-moth 

 (Doratifera) , a brightly-colored, stinging caterpil- 

 lar, whose fondness for gum-leaves causes serious 



