264 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
brain-development to go through the mental processes 
involved in recognising (without seeing the intruder) 
that it is a human being, that he w^ill wish to catch 
her, that there are such things as broken wings, which 
by feigning she may lure him on to follow her ; if 
she is wise enough to reason thus, she is also wise 
enough to sit tight and escape observation altogether — 
but she does not. 
A nest found in a furze bush near the Big Marsh, 
Connewarre, on December ist, 191 2, was well hidden 
in the bush, but had four long pieces of thatch-grass, 
one a foot long, with one end worked loosely into the 
nest and the other projecting on to the outside of 
the bush, and so rendering the nest easy to find. It 
is possible these straws are left purposely by the birds 
as guiding-lines : I have seen them very often. This 
nest was built exteriorly of dead grass-stems and 
roots, the former in many cases showing the dead 
seed-heads still attached, and several little clumps of 
grass with roots and all. There was one piece of dead 
furze. Thus was formed the base ; the nest proper 
was cup-shaped, 3 inches across and li deep ; the 
rim formed of longer stems, running, some of them, 
round the greater part of the circumference, and the 
cup itself formed of finer grass-stems without seeds 
or roots. The lining-pad was of horse-hair, and a 
very little of the grey fur of some small animal. 
There was not a single feather employed anywhere 
in building the nest. 
