NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
47 
While recently exploring this neighbourhood, a friend and myself came upon 
a large colony of fairy martins, whose nests were stuck in clusters upon the face 
of the river cliff. The genus in which this bird was formerly placed, Lagenoplastes, 
very aptly describes the form of the dwelling, which is decidedly flask-shaped, 
having a narrow neck affixed to a more globular portion in which the young are 
reared. 
The rufous head of this martin, coupled with the creamy-white rump, well 
displayed during flight, separate it from its congener the tree-martin {P. nigriians, 
Vieill) which has a brownish-white rump and a frontal rufous band merely, and 
builds in holes of gum trees. There were about eighty nests of the tlask builder 
affixed to the face of the cliff in the colony under consideration, clumped together 
in small groups, the globular parts cohering and the necks jjointing outwards ; the 
graceful little builders, to the number of one hundred or more, sailed backwards 
and forwards in front of the cliff catching insects, ever and anon visiting a nest 
which contained young, into the neck of which nest they would disappear for 
a few seconds, then reappear to launch forth once more into the breeze and 
sunshine. Some individuals had passed into the upper atmospheric strata, as 
high as we could distinguish them, and there coursed the high-flying insects ; the 
majority, however, flew at a height of about twenty-five feet above the water- 
level. 
An interesting point that we noticed was the ingenuity in placing the nests 
only on those portions of the cliff which could not be reached from above. As 
the mud flasks were in all cases placed near the summit and in many cases just 
along the edge of the cliff, it was very evident that they were exceedingly subject 
to the attacks of marauders, unless some means of protection could be utilised. 
The wily martins had, after due consideration, decided that the dense clumps of 
prickly pear which grew here and there close to the edge would afford adequate 
protection, and had therefore built directly under those clumps, and nowhere else, 
the parts of the cliff-face which were destitute of these spiny ma.sses above being 
also devoid of nests below. This seems a remarkable instance of reasoning power 
on the part of this interesting little swallow. 
By lying down on the top of the cliff beside a clump of pear with our heads and 
shoulders projecting over, and screwing a sideway glance, we were able to look 
into the necks of a few of the flasks, although they were quite beyond touching 
distance ; the young were too far in to be seen, but by quietly watching for some 
time we could observe the parents popping into the necks and reappearing, to 
sail away once more. The position was somewhat strained for continuous 
observation, but it was hard to draw oneself away from the interesting spot. 
While watching thus, we saw a house-sparrow appear in one of the spouts and 
fly away, so evidently this colonist finds the flasks of ariel not uncomfortable. 
By crossing the creek lower down on stones, and then walking until opposite the 
cliff face, a good view of the entire colony was obtained, and with the glasses the 
passage of the parents into the flasks was plainly visible. 
Essendon, Victoria. H. Stuart Dove. 
471. Birds and Berries. — Every true Selbornian wdshes to be on friendly 
terms with birds. But I wish our winged friends were not so fond of some of our 
showiest berries. I have a Pyracanthus close to my front windows, and its 
berries are carried off almost before they are fairly ripe. The same may be said 
of tho.se of the mountain ash. I have lately had a Cotoneaster planted also in 
front of the house. The few berries it had were at once detected and devoured ; 
so also with a Pernettya. 
The berries of the sea-buckthorn I understand they will not eat ; in that 
hope I have had a pair of them put in. Our crop of holly berries this winter has 
been splendid ; no milder term would do it justice. As the cold increased, the 
missel-thrushes attacked them more and more, but towards the end of January 
field-fares came in hungry swarms to the trees, and now appeared a curious thing 
which I had not noticed with the missel-thrushes. There is a pair of holly trees 
at my front gate, alike in size and age, and also in position, one standing at each 
end of the gate, N.W. and S.E. The S.E. tree had, I think, the finer show and 
the larger bunches of berries, though both were well laden. But the field-fares 
showed an unmistakable preference for the berries on the NAV. tree, which they 
