372 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
badly-oiled machinery. They have no other call but 
this, and, except that they are a little more noisy 
in the spring, seem to be in equally good voice all 
through the year. 
The nest, which I have been able usually to dis- 
tinguish from a Common Magpie's by the greater 
distance which the twigs project outwards from the 
framework, is of rather fine, long, dead eucalyptus 
twigs ; open, shallower than a Magpie's, and never 
lined with any other material but rootlets. It is 
placed in a messmate tree, often a mere sapling, at a 
height of 15 to 30 feet from the ground. 
The eggs are laid early in September, and are 
usually two in number ; in colour they are of a 
beautiful pinkish-buff ground shade, with brown and 
lilac markings, most of which appear to be rather 
deeply laid into the shell than superimposed upon it, 
so harmoniously do they blend with the ground-colour. 
CHOUGH 
Corcorax melanorhamphus whitece 
The Chough exhibits almost as great a contrast in its 
two different sets of " calls " or notes as it does in 
the black and white of its plumage. If one comes 
upon a flock in the forest, as, for instance, between 
Jan Juc and Anglesea, they are usually on the ground 
feeding or hunting for nest-mud. As they rise, 
often twenty or more together, they show a brilliant 
