i6 



Barrett, Bird Life on Yanko Creek {N.S.W.) [,^ff^^y 



in its beak, distribute the food, and shoot into the blue again. 

 At any time in the day, if one looked overhead, Wood-Swallows 

 could be seen flecking the sky, some at a great height. " Sky" 

 is the local name for all the species of Artamns that frequent 

 Jerilderie, and it is both pleasing and suitable, for the birds seem 

 to revel in their beautiful flight. 



In my companion's garden many birds were nesting, Wood- 

 Swallows, of course, being in the majority. A box-thorn hedge, 

 fencing the western side of a paddock, was favoured by Tri- 



Tricoloured Bush-Chat (cJ) on Nest. 



FROM A PHOTO. BY CHARLES BARRETT. 



coloured Bush-Chats {Ephthianma tricolor), and I spent nearly 

 a whole afternoon with the camera at a nest which contained 

 three heavily-incubated eggs. The temperature was over loo^ 

 in the shade, and, though I protected the camera with the 

 focussing cloth, the base was cracked by the heat, and several 

 plates were fogged. But I secured good photographs of the 

 male and female Chats at the nest. The male was much the 

 bolder of the pair, and my long vigil was due chiefly to the 

 timidity of the female. In bright sunlight, the scarlet cap and 

 breast of the male, as it sat in the nest, shone like flakes of lire. 



