238 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
to July, a few pairs presently remained in the park 
to breed, and since about the year 1898 several broods 
have been hatched there annually. 
Purely insectivorous, it is fearless of man in its 
pursuit of its booty of gnats and other flying insects. 
A friend camped on the Cumberland, near Lorne, 
was watching a Fantail, when suddenly it flew directly 
at him, perched on his left shoulder, then flew round 
his back to his right shoulder and again to his left 
before darting off again to a tree. I have known these 
birds pick flies off a gun-barrel which a man was 
holding still as he waited for kangaroo. 
The flight is erratic, with much movement of the 
tail, which, indeed, is never at rest when the bird is 
awake. No one could describe the song ; it is cheer- 
ful and varied, if a little tinny " ; one could imagine 
it to be the tuning-up of a fiddle in some orchestra 
of Lilliputian wood-sprites. 
The nest is one of the marvels of Australian bird- 
architecture. It is commonly and well described as 
looking like a wineglass with the base broken off ; the 
cup of the glass being the nest itself, while the stem 
is the curious ^' tail " which, attached to the nest, 
hangs below the horizontal twig upon which the nest 
is built. The whole is woven of fine grasses, lined 
with rootlets or a little hair, and thickly coated out- 
side with a finish of spider-webs which gives the 
nest a smooth grey appearance. Built usually about 
4 feet from the ground in a gum sapling, acacia 
hedge, or ti-tree, it is one of the most difficult nests 
