98 stray Feathers. [J'^ocu 



met with this species on barren, rocky ground at the StirUng 

 Ranges, about 60 miles south-east from here, in September, 1902, 

 but on 3rd November last year I found them numerous on a sand 

 plain a few miles east of the railway, where there is absolutely no 

 rock or stone. The old birds were busy attending to their recently 

 fledged young. I procured two of the birds, and sent them to the 

 Perth Museum, and they agreed with specimens obtained at the 

 Stirling Ranges, excepting a slight difference in shade of colour. 

 This year I determined to discover the nest and eggs of the species, 

 and on my third trip out to the sand plain was successful. After 

 driving with my buggy and tramping many miles through the 

 shorter vegetation (about i foot in height), I decided to try where 

 the scrub grew much thicker and to a height of 5 to 10 feet. In a 

 fairly open patch in this scrub an undoubted Calainaiilhiis 

 inontanellns crept rapidly out of sight, without my being certain of 

 the exact spot from which it had started. After searching awhile, 

 1 marked the place, and gave the bird an hour's grace. Returning, 

 the l)ird, to my suri)rise, twisted itself away and out of sight almost 

 instantly from what seemed an almost bare patch of ground, but 

 which I was certain now contained a nest. Until I got down on 

 my knees, and sighted the aperture of the nest, there was 

 absolutely nothing to catch the eye. The nest was of almost 

 globular shape, about 4 inches in diameter, and placed in a slight 

 hollow (about i inch deep) in the ground. The entrance was 

 almost level with the ground surface, i^ inches wide by i inch in 

 height, and faced almost due north. The nest was built between 

 two thin branches of a coarse dry grass, and the top of it resembled 

 one of the small ant-heaps occurring on sand plains, built up of 

 short lengths of dry grass. Probably the resemblance was 

 intentional, for protection. I cannot recollect any nest being so 

 inconspicuous in appearance. It was rather loosely put together, 

 and made mostly of coarse, dry grass-stems, with a few dry leaves 

 and old flower heads and stalks intermixed. It was well lined with 

 feathers, among which were many blue, green, and red ones from 

 Rosellas and Yellow-banded Parrakeets. The eggs were three in 

 number, of a buifish-salmon tint, with a clouded zone at the larger 

 end of a darker shade. They much resemble the plate (11) in Mr. 

 A. J. Campbell's "Nests and Eggs" of the Striated Field-Wren 

 (C. fuli^inosis), but the spots were not so well defined, and the 

 small end not so pointed, as in the plate. Although I had twice 

 seen the bird leave the nest, and had no doubt as to its identity, I 

 thought it best to be absolutely certain, so concealed myself about 

 10 yards from the nest. In 20 minutes the female suddenly 

 appeared on a dry stick that lay close to the nest, having crept so 

 far, quite unobserved, along the ground. Before I could shoot she 

 suddenly appeared, as if by magic, on a twig within 4 feet of my 

 elbow, and immediately afterwards the eggs were identified beyond 

 doubt. The song of the male bird is very similar to that of 

 C. campesf.ris, with which I was long familiar in the north-west of 

 this State, and is a very pleasant and melodious one. — Tom 

 Carter. Wensleydale, Broome Hill (W.A.), 28/8/08. 



