194 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
At night they grow more lively, and sally out to feed 
upon gum-tree moths and other insects, which it 
would appear that they catch not in flight, but when 
the insects are resting upon or under the bark of a 
tree. The Mopoke appears, upon dissection, to have 
a relatively small brain. 
The nest is a slight structure of twigs, lined with 
a little grass, and placed on a horizontal bough of a 
gum tree at from lo to 20 feet from the ground. 
Two eggs are laid, elongated ovals, pure white. The 
last weeks of September and first weeks of October 
form the height of the breeding-season. 
At Lake Victoria I once found a Mopoke sitting 
on a single egg in an old Hawk's nest which she had 
refitted. At Gnarwarre we found a nest building, the 
birds asleep in a neighbouring tree. Next week, 
after gales, the nest had been blown out of the fork, 
and a single egg remained, caught between a twig 
and the branch. 
For preference the Mopoke likes country thinly 
timbered with old and wide-branching gum trees ; 
it is accordingly more plentiful at Mount Moriac, 
for instance, than in the denser forest southward 
toward Anglesea. 
Mr. Mulder has a Mopoke from Airey's Inlet, 
which, besides being of a chestnut-brown colour 
instead of grey, has a larger head and stouter beak 
than usual. At present only one species is recognised 
as inhabiting this part of Victoria. 
