AUGUST 5 



showed white blossoms amongst its spiky leaves, and in one 

 tree I found a redhead's nest quite within reach. I approached 

 it very gingerly for the needlebush lives well up to its name 

 and after a few scratches, one right down my chin, I managed 

 to put my hand on to the retort-shaped bundle, and tilting it 

 gently, rolled out five eggs. Pure white they should have been ; 

 but they were so stained and discoloured that I knew at once 

 they were addled, and the nest bore signs that the birds had 

 been using it as a resting-place in the wet weather. Evidently it 

 had been deserted by its rightful owners, and other birds had 

 taken possession, using it as a storm shelter a fate which 

 often befalls the redhead's nest. 



Amongst the banksias and ti-tree, white-cheeked and New 

 Holland honey-eaters were noisily feeding and fussing. They 

 are both rather showy members of the family, with black-and- 

 white bodies, and yellow-edged wings, the only marked differ- 

 ence between them being the broad white fan-shaped tuft of 

 the white-cheeked honey-eater, from which he gets his name. 

 Both birds were evidently building, and in a little banksia I 

 found the nest of the Niew Holland, with two tiny, hideous, 

 featherless birds gaping widely for food. Further on in the 

 heath close to the ground I found the nest of another honey- 

 eater, known to science as the tawny-crowned. An insignifi- 

 cant little brown bird he is, but with a voice of liquid sweet- 

 ness, which is to be heard on the heathlands most months of 

 the year, floating with a gentle melancholy through the air. 



