136 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



oratorio of the male in spring, when he is leading a charming 

 competitive life ; then the notes of rollicking fun of the summer 

 bird ; and thirdly, the series of thrilling squeaks when the young 

 have ventured into a gambol among the boughs, which would be 

 quite out of place in birds of maturer years, while, during nesting 

 the female will sometimes utter a call as if a tragedy were taking 

 place. Blue Wrens are occasionally known to sing at mid- 

 night, and may frequently be heard between 9 and 10 p.m., as 

 well as the Black Fantail and the Great Brown Kingfisher 

 (Laughing Jackass). By July the young birds have acquired their 

 highest attainments in their musical efforts, though young wrens 

 in captivity do not burst into song so soon as those of the 

 adjacent bush. My correspondent, Mr. Graham, says that a 

 young male of M. gouldii in captivity attempted its first notes 

 on 1 6th September, 1898, when its note seemed to equal about 

 half the fulness of the old bird. 



These birds have wonderful appetites, and should be particu- 

 larly useful to market gardeners. I have seen them busily eating 

 the small Plutella Moths in the early morning when the dew was 

 still upon the grass. At such times one in a family will leisurely 

 expand its body feathers and become almost spherical in appear- 

 ance, while another will seem to rest lazily as much upon its tail 

 as upon its feet, while the wings lie limp and disarranged. Under 

 such circumstances the young show no fear, and leave all timidity 

 to their parents. The staple articles of their diet seem to be grass- 

 hoppers, hard-winged insects, and larvae. The persistent work of 

 Mr. Graham, as a skilled keeper of wrens in captivity, in provid- 

 ing food has proved that they are capable of disposing of eighty 

 larvae of the Cockchafer Beetle daily for several months in suc- 

 cession. 



At the commencement of the breeding season the males show 

 their greatest activity, and as many as five have been seen en- 

 gaged in a pugilistic encounter to determine who should claim 

 the favoured female. Nest-building usually takes place in 

 September, and it is generally placed within three or four feet of 

 the ground, sometimes in a thistle, but more often in some small 

 bush. In a previous paper, " Notes on the Birds of Box Hill " 

 (see Victorian A'aturalist, vol. xiv., p. 71), I gave some ex- 

 tended notes on the nesting of the Blue Wren, which need not be 

 repeated now. The period of incubation is fourteen days, and 

 the young fly from the nest on the eighth to tenth days, though 

 sometimes remaining till the fourteenth. The brood of If. gouldii 

 is usually three, and Mr. Graham has frequently noticed at 

 Heytesbury that before the break-up of the family in the following 

 spring it consists of one male and two females. This he has 

 been able to do owing to their habit of persistently following the 

 plough. He has also observed the fact that more than one adult 



