NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
49 
474. Bower Birds' Nests. — Yesterday I went for a walk and came on 
two nests of Bower Birds, curious birds building a nest within a few inches 
of the ground, made of twigs, and with two chambers. The structure is about 
five inches long, like a tunnel, with an entrance at both ends. In a curious 
manner they collect all sorts of little white things like shells, and arrange them 
in the nest one day, and the next all outside, at both entrances. I did not 
know they were at home, so I did not go quietly, or should have seen them at 
work. They are big dark brown birds. The nest out here is callerl the Bower 
Birds’ Playground. This evening I went out and had another spy, and managed 
to find them at home ; each one was occupied in its own nest, moving the shells 
and bits of stone from place to place ; first they would take a shell and place 
it in position, then another and place it outside, and so on. It is most interest- 
ing to watch them. They go elsewhere to lay theii eggs. I have made more 
observations on Bower Birds, they seem to play all day long arranging shells 
and stones as they please. The most noticeable thing about them is the length 
of body and the bill. — Extract from a letter written by 
Sou/h Australia. S. P. Bi.air. 
475. Hooded Crows. — The writer of No. 461 thinks Hooded Crows are 
rare “so far south as Godaiming.” They are very common in Hants, and may 
be seen on the sea shore at low tide searching for whelks, which they carry into 
the air and let drop on the shingle in older to crack the shell and feed on its 
contents. 
Edmund Thomas Daubeny. 
476. January Sunshine. — When the sun really shines in January, the 
beauty of the colouring of the country in winter strikes me very forcibly. The 
bare brown earth of a ploughed field, seen against the sky, has an indescribable 
charm about it, and the gleam of light on the wings and breasts of a flock of field- 
fares, as they circle round and then alight, adds life to the wide expanse ; but 
it is in the woods and copses that we find most colour. The distant woods, 
running down the slopes of the hills, are soft and misty, purple and red, 
with deep pure blue shadows in their depths. Nearer, at the entrance to the 
copse, stands a tall silver birch gently rocking in the wind ; the silver stem 
gleams in the sun, and the drooping veil of its purple red twigs melt against 
the pale blue of the sky. In the copse the golden-red beech leaves glow on the 
ground where the sun touches them, and green and silver-grey trunks rise up to 
the maze of purple-brown and golden twigs, through which patches of blue sky 
are seen, misted with purple by the innumerable twigs. There are a few larches 
in the wood, and their top-most twigs are a pure rose in the sun ; the cones look 
like gold on the down-hanging branches, always growing straight towards the sky, 
however much the branches droop. On the smooth bole of the beech the zig-zag 
shadows of boughs and twigs are clearly defined, and on a branch over-head 
sits a robin with bright red breast, filling the wood with his sweet mellow 
notes. On the ground are the dried yellow stalks of last summer’s flowers, and 
the fresh green of a few hopeful young leaves, growing up between the dead ones. 
The elms by the road-side have much beautiful colour, but the buds on their 
twigs are not yet large enough to show the rich rose colour that they have in 
spring. 
A beech tree standing alone in a field is another beautiful sight in winter, 
with its smooth grey-green trunk on which the shadows of the branches and 
twigs rest. The ground underneath glows red with the wealth of fallen leaves, 
and around all, the green grass stretches away ; whilst here and there a black- 
bird is seen digging for worms with his golden bill. 
K. S. S. 
477. Dead Leaves in a High Wind : some trite reflexions. — 
Walking in this parish on the afternoon of January 23 I noticed how the leaves 
were being driven before the strong E.N.E. wind. Some w'ere carried for 
a greater or less distance overhead, say twenty feet from the ground. These 
reminded me of some that I had noted as carried much further by a south wind 
at a different time of year. 
One does not often think of calculating the distance that blown leaves have 
travelled ; but in the case now referred to, there were reasons and facilities for 
