16 A BUSH CALENDAR 



oval nest, with a doorway at the side, and at this doorway was 

 a sad little sight, of which I had often heard but had never seen 

 with my own eyes. Hanging by its slender claws to the grass 

 threads of the nest, lay the dead body of a tiny baby tit, while 

 on the ground below lay another small body. Inside the nest, 

 where the two baby tits should have been safely hidden, was 

 huddled a bulky young fantail cuckoo, who opened his wide 

 yellow bill, and peeked hungrily at me. He was not sorry for 

 the poor infants he had tumbled out 1 to their death ; all he 

 cared for was to get enough to eat, and he squawked and 

 squawked, while the two small foster parents worked their 

 hardest to satisfy his voracious appetite. 



But fascinating as the forest country was, I knew that a 

 wealth of beauty was awaiting me ; so I pushed on down the 

 hill, across the creek, and up on to the sandstone. As I passed 

 the creek a diamond bird flew by to a hole in the bank, and by 

 the cheeping and squeaking that came from within I knew 

 there were three or four baby birds in the cosy nest at the end 

 of the tunnel. I did noti linger long near this little strange 

 home, for the blaze of colour ahead lured me on. Surely there 

 was never anything more beautiful than that stretch of bush, 

 which but a few weeks before had been bare and unlovely. 

 Now it shone and shimmered with a wealth of flowers of every 

 colour and shape. Spring had flung her gold with a prodigal 

 hand, and the yellow pea-flowers of the dillwynia, the pultenaea, 

 and the aotus gleamed like tiny fairy sovereigns, while lower 



