ROSELLA 
Birds laying in hollows of trees have, other things 
being equal, the best chance of survival, and the 
Rosella is no exception. I notice little change in its 
numbers in the past five-and-twenty years. Of 
course the complete clearing of all the old gumtrees 
will go far to extirpate it ; but that time is not yet, 
and the Rosella is still to be found resident throughout 
the peninsula to the east of a line drawn from Geelong 
to Torquay, though moving about a little in the 
autumn and winter. It goes no farther than the 
outskirts of the messmate bush, but one finds it again 
at Airey's Inlet, where the grass-lands on either side 
of the creek constitute a stretch of open country of 
considerable extent. 
Its favourite resort is an acre or two of old gnarled 
gums growing in country which otherwise is very 
lightly timbered. On the west and north of the 
town it is found everywhere in this class of country, 
being particularly plentiful on the western slopes 
of the Barrabool Hills about Mount Moriac and 
Gnarwarre. 
The eggs are laid on dead wood at the bottom of a 
gum-tree spout, either perpendicular or inclined to 
the horizontal, the latter for preference. Five to 
seven are normal clutches. I have known one instance 
where a Rosella laid in the old nest of a Babbler, and 
another where eggs, said to be Rosella's, were found 
in a rabbit-burrow. The laying-season is at its 
height in the month of October, but I have found 
eggs at the end of September. 
