THE ARISTOCRACY OF THE CREST 113 



gained into a little tuft that could faintly be spied 

 growing at the tip of a gum 45 feet high. Betimes, 

 he grew anxious, left off the work, and called loudly 

 for that truant mate. 



She returned soon afterwards, and operations 

 were resumed conjointly; but when I went to note 

 progress a week later the cluster in the tree-top had 

 not grown, and the birds were missing. 



There are odd occasions when Shrike-Tits, a trifle 

 more capricious than their brethren, build at a 

 much lower height than is usual. A Victorian 

 school teacher has told me of a case in which a pair 

 of the birds nested as low as ten feet. Such a de- 

 parture is surely remarkable, for the greatest fac- 

 tor in ensuring safety of the nest is its inaccessi- 

 bility. It is not surprising that the pair in question 

 was three times robbed by a cat ; they showed more 

 pluck than discretion in sticking to the one spot for 

 so long. 



Lowliest of my own Shrike-Tit "finds" was a nest 

 situated at the top of a sapling 17 or 18 feet high, 

 and not far from a busy country road. And thereby 

 hangs a tale, one directly connected with the 

 frontispiece of this book. Such a modest height was 

 low enough to render a photograph possible ; accord- 

 ingly, we brought into operation, early on a bright 

 "November morning, what a facetious cyclist was 

 pleased to term a "wireless station." Engrossed in 

 the interests of three lusty babes, the parent birds 

 did not appear to resent the presence of a long- 

 legged apparition with a staring eye that peered in 

 at their treasures ; they came back to feed the chicks 

 almost immediately the camera was in position, and 



H 



