156 * ^tray Feathers. Cst""''']",.. 



by the chattering of a number of these Honey-eaters I was 

 attracted to an Owl hidden in the leaves of a tree. The notes 

 of the birds are identical, from the usual one to an occasional 

 clear liquid whistle. Occasionally, just as does P. penicillata, 

 a bird will be seen to mount into the air by a series of ladder- 

 like rises, meanwhile uttering a peculiar liquid note, and then 

 suddenly dive down into the bushes. Middle of August. — Nest 

 with two fledged young in bulrushes over water. September. 

 — Old nest in paper-bark tea-tree {Melaleuca), about 15 feet 

 high, near main stem. 23rd September, — Nest in overhanging 

 branch of eucalypt, about 8 feet from ground, with two fresh 

 eggs. 



Nest and Eggs of Eviblema picta. — On nth August Mr. H. 

 M. Giles, F.E.S., my companion, found the nest of this rare 

 species by the female flying out of it. Later on we secured the 

 female on the nest. There was an unfledged nestling and two 

 eggs, both of which we succeeded in blowing, the young bird 

 being preserved also. The nest, composed of grasses, was 

 situated in a coarse tuft of spinifex {Triodia), not far from a dry 

 watercourse. In the photograph* the orifice of the nest in the 

 tuft of spinifex can be seen. The nest has been deposited in the 

 Western Australian Museum. Mouth of nest consists of fine 

 flowering ends of spinifex {Triodia). Body of nest — about size 

 of closed fist — buried in the spinifex tuft, and composed of 

 woolly tufts of hair and woolly leaves of plants to form a com- 

 pact nest. Eggs. — Colour pure white ; with lens, surface has a 

 dull gloss with occasional small pits. Shape, roundish oval, one 

 egg larger than other; size, in lines (12 lines to inch), 6.1 x 5, 

 6.^ X 5.4.— (Dr.) J. Burton Cleland. Perth, W.A. 



From Magazines, &c. 



Wood-Swallows Breeding in Captivity. — In Tlie Avi- 

 cultural Magazine for September Mr. E. J. Brook has some notes 

 on the breeding of the White-browed Wood-Swallow {Artamus 

 superciliostis) in his aviary. The birds nested in a piece of tree- 

 root with a rotten, cup-shaped hollow, in which they placed a 

 few very small sticks, but made no regular nest. Of three eggs 

 laid the first proved clear ; the second, laid three days later, was 

 broken ; while the third, laid after an interval of four days, was 

 successfully hatched. " Both birds sat, relieving each other at 

 short intervals. The ^^g hatched on the r4th day, I think, and 

 the young bird left the nest 14 days later. Both parent birds 

 fed the young one, but the male was the best feeder, and 

 much the keenest to find tit-bits, such as small flies, &c. 



* Dr. Cleland kindly sent a photograph of the nest in sittt, but as the picture was 

 evidently taken under difficulties it was not suitable for reproduction. — Eus. 



