THE BIRDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
of them are laid in ; in cold weather they use one of the newer nests for 
roosting in at night, and I have often flushed as many as half a dozen birds 
from a nest just about dusk. In this district two or three eggs form a full clutch, 
as of fifteen nests I have examined with complete clutches (incubated) six con- 
tained two, seven contained three, and two contained five, but in my collec- 
tion I have a clutch of seven taken by a friend in the Armatree district, New 
South Wales, on Sept. 4, 1909, but in this case, from the appearance of the 
eggs, I should say were undoubtedly laid by two females. I have found 
nests containing eggs from the last week in August till the first week in 
November.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby states : “ The only place in South Australia where I 
have met with this species is at Rendlesham in the south-east. In March 
1907 I found them very common in the neighbourhood of Yass, New South 
Wales, not far from the site of the future capital of Australia.” 
Mr. L. G. Chandler’s notes read : “ On October 4th, 1908, at Franklin, 
Victoria, I found two nests with two and three eggs respectively. My com- 
panion and myself climbed to several dozen new-looking nests without result. 
At one spot twelve nests could be seen in four trees. They were built on an 
average about ten feet from the ground. The birds are plentiful at Frankston, 
and do invaluable work for the orchardists there by destroying injurious 
insects. I have watched them working systematically through an orchard.” 
Mr. F. E. Howe has sent me the following note : “At Parwon, Victoria, 
this is a common bird, and in some parts the trees are full of their large stick- 
nests. I have often seen the nests placed quite within reach of the ground, 
but the rule in this locality appears to be to place them at the extremity of 
a long thin bough and at heights varying from twenty to thirty-five or forty 
feet. The eggs vary in number from two or three to seven and sometimes 
more. I have often noticed young just hatched out and accompanied by 
eggs. On one occasion I saw two young and four eggs in a nest, one egg was 
nearly incubated and the other three were fresh. This I think was evidence 
that two females laid in that particular nest. I have often flushed the birds 
(generally two) from the nests, and on climbing up have found it empty. 
This was in the breeding-season, in the months of September and October. 
The call of this bird sounds something like 4 Yahu-Yahou,’ uttered three 
or four times, and when seen hopping from limb to limb up a tree they utter 
chattering notes. They assemble in small families of five or six, and when 
flying to cover or from tree to tree it is a case of ‘ follow my leader.’ They 
obtain the food mostly from the ground, but I have often noticed them taking 
food, from the leaves and in the crevices of the bark along the more slender 
limbs of the sheoks, a tree they appear particularly fond of.” 
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