THE WOMBAT. I 5 



material. They used to work during the morning and 

 evening and rest for some hours at midday, and had the nest 

 completed in four days, and an egg laid on each of the 

 succeeding days. The nest was very beautifully constructed 

 of green moss, fibrous materials and cobwebs, about 3^ inches 

 in diameter, and 3 inches in height. 



The welcome swallow is as familiar here as in other parts 

 of the colony. The tree swallow was seen nesting in the 

 large gums along the Campaspe. These t birds usually choose 

 a hollow spout of a dead branch or tree, and in this they 

 construct a nest of fine gum leaves or grass ; sometimes when 

 the entrance is too large they narrow it with mud. I have 

 found two or three nests in one large hollow. They usually 

 take two or three weeks in preparing their nests before laying. 

 Their congener (Petrochelidon ariel) was first observed at 

 Bridgewater, where its retort-shaped mud nests lined the eaves 

 and window arches of a flour mill. Further north, in the open 

 country between Pyramid Hill and Kerang, nearly every 

 bridge, even if only a few feet above the water, of an irrigation 

 channel, was lined with these nests. It is a pretty and grace- 

 ful little bird, and sometimes goes as far south as Tasmania 

 where I noted it myself in 1893. 



We now pass on to the second great order of Carinate 

 birds ; — Coraciformes, beginning with the sub-order, Coracice. 

 First in the order, we will mention the spine-tailed swift 

 {Chcetura caudacuta) a bird which only visits our country 

 during the summer, and is supposed to go away and breed in 

 Northern China and Japan ; they may be seen at times about 

 January or February hawking in numbers high in the air, and 

 sometimes low down. They were noted over Bendigo. 



Now and again in different parts we come across the 

 Tawny-shouldered Podargus, sitting longitudinally along a 

 thick limb with beak and head extended in a line with the 

 body, the whole in colour and shape looking so remarkably like 

 a projecting piece of the tree itself as to be easily passed by. 



One afternoon, whilst wandering in the scrub at Tarna- 

 gulla, I noticed a bronzewing pigeon (Phaps chalcoptera) 

 standing by its nest, which was placed on the horizontal limb 

 of an ironbark ; on approaching the bird flew off with its usual 

 clattering flight, which brought a little owlet nightjar from a 

 hollow in the same tree to see what it was all about. Both 

 nests contained perfectly fresh eggs—the pigeons two and the 

 nightjar's four as usual ; the latter reposed upon a bed of 

 leaves at about two feet from the entrance of the hollow. 



Bee-eaters (Merops ornatus) were first met with at Bridge- 

 water, where three of them were noted sitting on a wire fence 

 in front of a flowering acacia tree, on the look out for any 

 unfortunate insect that might be tempted to feed upon the 

 tree. They were in November found breeding in the sand- 

 hills near Lake Charm. 



