374 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
scribed as an open bowl of mud fixed firmly to a 
horizontal branch. 
A nest found at the You Yangs weighed lb. and 
was approximately 8 inches in diameter and 25 inches 
in circumference. The mud was built well down 
along the sides of the bough to form a firm holding, 
and then in successive layers upwards. Although 
the eggs rested only i-J inches below the rim of the 
nest, on a layer of fine shredded bark and rabbits' 
fur, there was, below the latter, going right down to 
the bottom of the nest and touching the top of the 
bough, so as to fill up the nest, a mass of shredded 
bark and grass. This mass was built into the mud of 
the sides all the way up, and much of it was firmly 
set into a kind of plaster where it met the mud. The 
depth of the nest in the middle, from a level with 
the sides to the top of the bough on which the nest 
rested, was 4 inches, and thence another 2 inches 
to the bottom of the mud on each side of where 
the bough had fitted. After the nest was removed, 
the place where the bough had been looked like a 
smooth groove in the bottom of the nest. A gum 
leaf was worked into the mud in one place from the 
inside, and a tuft of rabbit's fur showed half-way down 
the outside, these being intended as strengtheners. 
The mud was greyish black. 
The eggs are four, rarely five, of a creamy ground- 
colour, with a few large blotches of brown and lilac. 
Most Choughs lay in the last week in August, but 
I have notes of fresh eggs being seen by Mr. Riordan 
