284 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
and to have more white about them, and may turn 
out to be subspecifically distinct. Mr. A. G. Camp- 
bell has identified the samphire and coast birds as 
S. osculans. Along the Moorabool and Barwon Rivers 
Sericornes are found at intervals, but are not plentiful. 
At Lake Connewarre they were formerly abundant 
in the lignums, but have become scarcer in recent 
years. There are always a few pairs inhabiting 
gardens in the town, and Mr. A. J. Greenfield tells 
me that in 191 3 a pair nested in the conservatory in 
the Eastern Park. 
The nest is a loose, bulky structure nearly the size 
of a Sparrow's, and is situated so as to gain security 
from observation rather by harmony with its sur- 
roundings than by actual concealment. In the coastal 
Leptospermum scrub it is placed resting on a broad 
horizontal fork, where it looks like a collection of loose 
bark and rubbish which has accidentally collected. 
At Connewarre Lakes I have seen it 10 or 12 feet up 
in the bushy extremity of a melaleuca bough, or again 
set among the long grass growing up the centre of a 
low lignum bush. At Point Henry Mr. Riordan 
found one built on the ground among herbage in 
an open space. On the banks of the Moorabool and 
at Lorne the nest is placed either right in a grass 
tussock or in a heap of dead brushwood a foot or two 
from the ground. 
I have found eggs as early as July 20th (Conne- 
warre) and as late as the beginning of December ; 
but August is the chief breeding-month. 
