,. , r- ,; r Emu 



102 Stray teatliers. [,^, Oct. 



natcly roasted on one side and frozen on the other, so cold and 

 draughty was our camp, and night watch was called frequently 

 to add more fuel to the fire. However, the gale died away in 

 the early morning, and the dawn broke fair and promising, with 

 Singing Honey-eaters whistling their tuneful calls. The first 

 bird out of the tea-tree brake saw us demolishing our morning 

 meal, and by the time the sun came up, thrusting his rays like 

 long red fingers through the horizon clouds, the Bristle-Birds 

 were awake and calling to one another about the scrub. 



The tea-tree here is not the coastal broad-leaf Lcptospcrunuii 

 common on the east shore of Port Phillip, but a fine-leaved 

 bottlebrush-flowering Melaleuca. It grows shorter and denser, 

 it branches much from the ground, and the tops in some places 

 grow so thick and matted that sunlight is excluded. They are 

 very difficult to push through, often the easiest way to examine 

 them being to crawl about beneath. Clumps and belts of this 

 tea-tree clothe the wind-blown slopes of Bristle-Bird Point, 

 otherwise known as Point Addis, a triple-headed limestone bluff 

 about half-way between Port Phillip Heads and Cape Otway. 

 This seems to be the limit to which a small party of Bristle- 

 Birds have ventured out from their tangled forest home in Cape 

 Otway. It is, in fact, remarkable that such a unique bird, and 

 a ground dweller in heavy forests, should find congenial 

 surroundings in a patch of wind-swept scrub by the sea-shore. 

 We examined the patches and belts of tea-tree for some two 

 miles south-west, and in all were located one or more pairs of 

 birds. In some places the tea-tree approaches on to the high- 

 water mark, and then it is thickly matted in with long coastal 

 sword-grass, which also makes a tangled home for the Bristle- 

 Bird. That morning the persistent calls of a bird in the clump 

 where we passed the night led us to make a search therein first, 

 with the result that its bulky nest was discovered, containing 

 one large, red-speckled ^g^. A continued search revealed the 

 fact that there were in all five nests in the clump, presumably 

 all belonging to the same birds ; three were of last year or older, 

 and one other was this season's, having had a fledgling in it. It 

 had also an addled &gg, which, though it had lost some colour, 

 made a good cabinet specimen. Here was a point that emphasized 

 itself the more we became acquainted with the Bristle-Bird : 

 one ^gg in every clutch was infertile. Several old nests were 

 found, like this one, with an addled tgg. One nest contained 

 a young bird and an addled ^gg, and in two nice pairs of eggs 

 one was partly incubated and the other not so. It would be 

 interesting to know if this occurs in the Otway, the true home 

 of the species. There may be some food element lacking 

 here. 



The notes of the Bristle-Bird have a great likeness to those of 

 the Pilot-Bird in being loud and melodious— the call-song is 



