179 
Neighbourhood of Sydney, New South Wales . 
building-places. The nests are usually situated a few inches 
from the ground, and are cup-shaped, and placed upon a strong 
framework of twigs, and neatly lined with grass, hair, &c. 
I have frequently found them among the dead leafy tops of a 
fallen Eucalyptus which has been left by the wood-cutters when 
clearing a piece of new ground. 
The eggs of this bird are usually three, but sometimes four, in 
number, from 6J to 7 lines long by 5 broad, beautifully white, 
some spotted, and others irregularly marked, with bright deep- 
reddish brown at the larger end, where, in some, the spots form an 
indistinct zone. In other specimens the spots are crowded at the 
top, and very sparingly sprinkled on the other parts of the egg. 
These birds easily betray the position of the nest or young, by 
their anxiety and attempts to draw one from the spot by feigning 
broken wings, and by lying struggling upon the ground as if in 
a tit. They have two broods (and perhaps more) in the year, 
after which the young accompany the parent birds to feed, 
generally on the salt marshy grounds near the water’s edge. 
About Botany and the Parramatta Biver, upon the borders of 
the Hexham swamps, &c. &c., they are plentiful. 
These birds give most decided preference to the open, half- 
cleared patches of land. I never found more than four or six 
together, doubtless the offspring of one pair; still it is not 
unusual to find them in pairs only. As far as I am aware, they 
have but one (very plaintive) note, emitted chiefly when flying 
or when the nest is approached. 
3. The Green-backed Oriole (Oriolus viridis, Gould, B. 
Austr. iv. pi. 13). 
During the winter months these birds may be found in flocks, 
from five to twenty in number, feeding upon various cultivated 
and wild fruits, and often in company with the Eruit-eating Mag¬ 
pies, the note of which they often imitate. They frequent nearly 
all the orchards and gardens about Sydney, and especially if they 
contain any of the Native Olive or Moreton Bay fig-trees in fruit, 
to which they seem very partial. I have known them, though 
seemingly with great reluctance, eat the berries of the White 
Cedar. Towards the beginning of September (about Sydney) 
