312 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
small bands of half a dozen or so, which travel rapidly 
through considerable areas of forest, the flock settling 
in the higher branches of a tree, and each individual 
working head-down along a limb towards the trunk 
in a spiral course, carefully examining every nook 
and cranny for insects. Never is the Tree-runner 
at rest in the daytime ; one tree done, there is a little 
twittering and calling, and the flock moves off to the 
next likely prospecting-ground, and so on. I never 
saw these birds on the ground. In flight the wings 
are kept more outspread and the appearance is 
consequently more Swallow-like than is the case with 
most of our smaller bush birds. 
It is peculiarly a forest-dweller, and best of all 
loves the outskirts of the messmate lands ; for the 
messmate's rough, loose bark gives shelter to numbers 
of insects. The Tree-runner is partial also to dead 
trees, though one would suppose the possibilities of 
insect food would there be less. While one flock will 
probably keep more or less to the same belt of forest, 
their travelling habits make them uncertain birds to 
find. 
The southern messmate forest, the Anakie Forest, 
and the bush along the Queensclifl Road are the 
localities in which this species is best established, and 
it breeds in all of them. 
On December 19th, 191 1, Mr. Riordan and I 
found a nest in a messmate tree near Bull's Well ; and 
on the 26th of the same month, by which time three 
eggs had been laid, Mr. Riordan managed, in spite 
