^ 



212 Fletcher, Bird Notes from Cleveland, Tasmania. [ist^ April 



the waterfowl suffered severely. Numbers of nests of the Native- 

 Hen [Tribonyx niortieri) and Bald-Coot {PorpJiyrio melanonotus) 

 were found with their contents riddled. The earliest nest I 

 found last year was on 17th October. It contained six eggs, on 

 which the bird was sitting. A week later I discovered another, 

 splendidly made and arched. The bird was, as usual with these 

 birds, invisible, but the eggs were tVarm ; four were chipped, and 

 the other two were very heavy. Later on a second clutch was 

 reared in this nest. A nest found on the ist December was 

 remarkable for the fact that two of the five eggs were sharply 

 pointed and the whole set smaller than the average. 



Bald-Coot {Pof'pJiyrio nielanojtotus). — In the same lagoon 

 lives a flock of about twenty of these birds. They often come 

 up on the surrounding common to feed, and are daring enough 

 to mingle with the domestic fowls or fly into a garden close to 

 the lagoon. However, if they see a human being they quickly 

 pop over the fence and fly in their clumsy manner to the shelter 

 of the rushes. They generally prefer to alight in open water, 

 and thence scuttle to cover. What a heavy way the Bald-Coots 

 have of alighting, seeming in some way to stiffen their legs ! If 

 anything unusual is noticed whilst the birds are paddling or 

 eating, a warning cry is given, which is sometimes answered by 

 bird after bird right across the lagoon. The effect of a gunshot is 

 indeed weird. As the startled waterfowl give vent to their 

 feelings by cries, it seems as if the waste of reeds and waters 

 had suddenly found a tongue. 



The Bald-Coots are rather fond of building tiny platforms on 

 which to stand whilst feeding. They are made of reeds, bitten 

 off and placed across one another, sometimes on the soft mud, 

 occasionally on the short reeds. Often about these places are 

 to be found lumps of chewed reeds or water plants, which have 

 apparently been ejected from the mouth. Excreta is sometimes 

 rather plentiful, showing, I think, that the birds rest on their 

 platforms for some time. 



The Bald-Coots appear rather hard to please with regard 

 to the site of their nest, and I am surprised at the number of 

 nests commenced that are generally to be found at short 

 distances from the final and completed one. Here they prefer 

 to build their nests on the shorter green reeds in 3 to 4 feet of 

 water. The nest, made of reeds and herbage, is about the size 

 of a dinner plate, from 4 to 8 inches thick, and raised above the 

 water's edge. 



On loth November, 1907, I flushed a Bald-Coot from its nest 

 on the dry edge of a peninsula. This nest was simply a hollow 

 in the ground, lined and sheltered by short reeds. Seven eggs 

 were in it, and were so like the eggs of the Tribonyx that had I 

 not seen the bird as she left the nest I would have thought they 

 were a Native-Hen's. One ^g<g was rotten ; the others were 



