236 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
YELLOW ROBIN 
Eopsaltria australis viridior 
Anglesea has not changed much in general view since 
I first saw it at seven o'clock on a winter's morning of 
white frost and glorious blue sky in the year 1889; 
but the Yellow Robins have gone. There was then 
a dense thicket of tall ti-tree all along the eastern 
bank of the creek. I knew it was not the nesting- 
season, but wild horses would not have prevented 
my before-breakfast exploration ; and I found the 
ti-tree just full of those queer little cup-shaped nests, 
built of fine pliant twigs, lined with a few gum- 
leaves neatly worked into the fabric, and ornamented 
on the outside with hanging strips of ti-tree bark. 
So barely they sat on the lateral boughs, 4 or 5 
feet from the ground, that one wondered how the 
birds could use so little concealment. You had but 
to bend down (I don't think, in those days, even 
that was necessary in my case) and look through the 
thick network of ti-tree, and in one direction or 
another there was sure to be a nest within a dozen 
yards. And the birds, with their grey and green 
backs and bright orange breasts, flitted here and 
there, or clung to a ti-tree stem a yard away, and 
looked sideways at me — the tamest, prettiest little 
creatures that ever were. 
Bush fires have burnt the ti-tree, burnt the little 
Robins too, I suppose, and now you would be hard put 
