Emu wren 
It seems, at first sight, strange that a species 
generally associated with swampy country should 
also resort to these bleak, wind-swept uplands ; but 
one may note that even here there are numerous 
shallow valleys with a thick growth of low ti-tree 
and other herbage which form ideal spots for the 
birds, for the ground is kept moist by the showers 
which fall in these coastal districts more or less through- 
out the year. 
I have only once found the nest. On September 
20th, 1913, Mr. H. A. Purnell and I were about a 
mile south of Wensleydale, on our way to Anglesea, 
when we heard the faint twitter of these birds (rather 
like a weak imitation of the Blue Wren) in a heathy 
bottom ; and as we sought to catch sight of them, 
always a difficult matter with so ground-loving and 
secretive a bird, one flew out hurriedly from almost 
beneath my feet. There was the nest, set firmly 
in the branch of a diminutive ti-tree, a little smaller 
than a Blue Wren's, but of similar materials and, like 
it, having a large side entrance ; there were three eggs, 
large for the bird, white, with a ring of reddish spots. 
Mr. Purnell found a nest built in samphire scrub 
at the Salt Works on October 25th, 191 3, which 
contained one egg of the Emu Wren and one of the 
Narrow-billed Bronze Cuckoo. This nest was, like 
the nests of most birds which breed in the samphire, 
constructed entirely of fine dried seaweed of the sort 
which one finds in large masses on the beach there. 
It was lined with feathers and other soft materials. 
19 
