NOVEMBER 41 



the top of a tree, works carefully downwards, poking his point- 

 ed, upturned bill into every cranny until he reaches the ground, 

 then flies off to another top, to repeat the performance. I 

 watched him working busily for a while, till his industry was 

 rewarded by a nice fat grub, which he immediately carried off 

 to a branch above and killed. Then, with the grub in his beak, 

 he flew away, showing a band of rich orange on his outstretch- 

 ed wings. Away he went to the top of a high tree, where in 

 the fork of a withered branch was placed one of the neatest 

 nests in all the bush, and one of the hardest to see, so cunning- 

 ly was it wrought out of spiders' webs and cocoons, and an 

 outer covering of bark which made it look like a continuation 

 of the branch. 



But even the most carefully disguised nest does not deceive 

 the small boy ; the yellow robin's nest is quite as cleverly made 

 to look like its surroundings as is the tree-runner's, and yet 

 it is one of the nests most often the prey of the young savages. 

 All through the bush here are the yellowbobs, and early in 

 the season I found their nests again and again within hand 

 reach ; but, alas, the small boy always found them, too, and 

 now in desperation the birds have taken to building quite high 

 in the trees, and from a branch ever so far above me the big 

 bright eyes of a Mrs. Yellowbob looked down at me with sus- 

 picion, as she snuggled down on her treasures, though by this 

 time she should have been feeding fledglings. But, in spite 

 of the ravaging small boy, there are dozens and dozens of 



