80 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xv. 



very clumsy and not at all comfortable, neither were the 

 young, which were seething under him, constantly poking their 

 heads out, and compelling him to get up and see what was 

 wrong. On one of these occasions, while fussing around on 

 the edge of the nest, he lost his balance and nearly went head 

 over heels into it. When the female returned she took a turn 

 at brooding, and the different figure she cut on the nest was 

 remarkable. She sat low with feathers laid flat to her body. 

 The young appeared to be quite comfortable and snug, and 

 did not heave under her, or try and poke their heads out as 

 they did when the male was brooding." 



On the following day. May 30th, I kept a timed record 

 of all the happenings at the nest during the i hour and 40 

 minutes I was in hiding. 



The young were fed 38 times, the food being, with the ex- 

 ception of one brown grub brought by the female at 7.18 a.m., 

 small green caterpillars. Only one youngster was fed at 

 each visit. The male seemed the least shy of the "hide," 

 and did more than his share of the work, feeding the young 

 19 times, cleaning the nest four times, and brooding on six 

 occasions. The female fed the young 19 times, cleaned the 

 nest four times, but did not brood at all. Each time the nest 

 was cleaned the bird performing this duty would carry the 

 droppings away out of sight. 



Once the female, while feeding the young, dropped one 

 of the caterpillars, which fell to the ground. This she 

 immediately retrieved and gave to one of the chicks. 



The most interesting happening noted, was the singing 

 of the male while he was brooding. This happened on four 

 separate occasions, viz., at 6.38, when he saw the female 

 returning he uttered a few notes ; at 6.50 he suddenly burst 

 into full song ; at 7.8 after feeding the young he stood on 

 the edge of the nest and sang, afterwards brooding and singing 

 again; and at 7.30 during a spell of seven minutes' brooding 

 he sang three times. 



On May 31st, from 6.24 a.m. to 8.2 a.m. (i hour 38 minutes) 

 the young were only fed 25 times. All the food was green 

 caterpillars, and the male did no brooding nor singing. 



My next visit was on June 2nd. The young were ready 

 to leave the nest, in fact one did so and hopped off into the 

 bush as I entered the hide. The male was the first to appear 

 and fed the young in the nest, and afterwards located the 

 one that had wandered. The female then returned but 

 instead of coming to the nest, stayed in the bush just behind 

 it and called to the young. Two more struggled out of the 



