84 
The Emu. 
in the quaintest manner, trying by its gestures as a wounded 
bird to lead the traveller from its nest. It not only does not 
shun the presence of man, but rather courts it, as I have observed 
it on several occasions in the middle of the military camp at 
Ross, picking about near the tent openings in the most fearless 
manner, and at others frequenting the horse lines ; and once I 
saw a pair hopping about beneath the leading horses of a gun 
team while I was inspecting the " battery." In the Ross 
district it nests in the gorse, building about one or two feet 
from the ground, its nest sometimes being quite devoid of 
concealment. On the coast the nest is usually placed in the 
top of a dead tussock of " cattle grass," and is composed of dry 
grass of the colour of that surrounding it. The structure is a 
compactly though somewhat loosely made cup, lined firmly 
with fine dry roots and a few fern hairs, a tuft of cattle hair 
sometimes forming part of the bottom of the cup. Jn the 
swamps on the Derwent I have found the nest in rushy grass 
as low as six inches from the ground, and observed in it dried 
swamp plants mixed with the grass and bents of the outer 
structure. The dimensions of the cup are from to ij^ 
inches in diameter by about i ^ inches deep. On the Cullens- 
wood estate, St. Mary's — an upland plateau — where it has 
appeared only since two years ago, my son, Mr. R. Legge, found 
a nest in the top of a dead " sagg," perfectly exposed to view ; 
it was there also constructed of dry " cattle grass." It builds 
in August and September, full-grown young birds being seen 
about with the parents in the middle of October. Three to four 
eggs, but mostly the former, are the clutch in this country. They 
vary in shape, some being stumpier than others, the longer 
ones, too,, being sometimes flat-sided (viewed in plan). The 
clearly defined brick-red spots occasionally vary in character in 
the same clutch, taking the form of a zone in some, and in 
others distributed more evenly round the large end. 
I think it probable that the inclusion of this species in the 
Tasmanian list by Strzlecki was based on his examples pro- 
cured in the Strait islands, which he explored during his 
sojourn in Australia. 
4. ACROCEPHALUS AUSTRALIS (Gould), Reed Warbler. 
The Reed Warbler is a welcome harbinger of spring, and is, 
one might say, the only connecting link between the songsters 
of the old country and our far-off southern isle ; and yet it is a 
little-known bird in Tasmania, being very local in its habitat 
and confined to those rivers and waters which are lined with 
the lofty water reed. It arrives in the island towards the latter 
end of September, and soon makes its presence known by its 
loud and not unmelodious warblings, issued forth from the 
dense shelter, out of which it is rarely seen, and which are 
repeated through the night, after the habit of its congener in 
