The Emu. 
first flight. The distinctive porphyry-coloured patch on the 
crown of the head showed itself almost as clearly as in adult 
specimens. The fledglings were kept alive for a day or so by 
constant feeding in the mode presumably adopted by their 
parents, but a cold night killed them. This is the first authenti- 
cated taking of the nest in this district, and seems very early in 
the season, as the other members of the order Psittaci do not 
usually breed here before late October. 
Pardalotus (genus) — Pardalotes. 
The Masters Young above mentioned, who are close ob- 
servers of birds in the field, took, during the space of a few days 
in September, three clutches of Pardalotes' eggs, each of 
which differed strikingly from the others in point of size. The 
first set taken was one of three eggs of P. punctatus from a 
tunnel into the side of a gutter on a country road. These eggs 
are much smaller than those subsequently taken, and I have 
always noted that the Spotted Pardalote's eggs may at once be 
distinguished from other local species in this way. Furthermore, 
the Spotted Pardalote never, in this district at least, tunnels 
into a perpendicular or steep bank, but always into a very 
gentle declivity, as the rise alongside a road, or the mouth of a 
rabbit-burrow. The second clutch was one of four from a hole 
in a gum-tree at Batesford. In this case the bird was not 
identified, except that the head was striped. The eggs were 
peculiar by reason of their very large size. The last nest taken 
was in a steep creek bank, also at Batesford. This contained 
two eggs, of a size intermediate between the last-mentioned eggs 
and those of P, punctatus, but exactly corresponding in all 
respects with eggs previously taken by me in similar positions, 
and with two sets found also in a steep creek bank at Narre 
Warren later on in the season, a bird caught in one of the two 
latter nests proving to be P. assiiniiis. A closer noting of these 
two species may probably prove that P. orjiatus is an invariable 
tree-breeder, while its ally keeps to the ground. It is difficult 
here to get at many of the nests in tree-hollows, as they must 
always be chopped out, and take some finding in the first 
instance. 
Graucalus MELANOPS, Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike. 
On nth November, in a quiet gully near Narre Warren, I saw 
a Graucalus (Cuckoo-Shrike) fly from an old nest of the Pied 
Grallina. Percy Young, who was with me, climbed the tree and 
found a single egg of the Graucalus. The nest was very slightly 
injured since the builders had left it, and the Cuckoo-Shrike had 
added merely a few cobwebs and a little lining. The egg was 
hard-set. I stood under a tree the bird flew to, and examined it 
carefully. Strange to say, there was no black about the face. 
In an adjacent tree we found this season's nest of the Grallina, 
with four eggs. 
