78 A BUSH CALENDAR 



It showed us something else more interesting than the 

 spider's web. In a big grey gum at the edge of the track to 

 the gully, we saw one of Nature's most marvellous devices for 

 protecting her creatures. Jutting out from the main trunk 

 was what appeared to be a broken limb, but a closer glance 



NEST OF PAINTED QUAIL 



showed that it was a bird, or rather two birds. Cuddling very 

 close together were two frog-mouths, or moreporks, sitting bolt 

 upright like stiff pieces of wood, the striped grey of their coats 

 barely distinguishable from the bark of the tree. A hundred 



