THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
the trunk of a tree, remaining perfectly still for some minutes. When thev 
V 
are climbing the dark ironbark trees they are very difficult to see, their brown 
backs harmonise well with the bark, and they usually try and keep on the 
opposite side of a trunk or branch to an intruder. Their nests are most difficult 
to find; if they know they are being watched they will not go near them. 
While sitting down in a thick forest one day I saw a bird flying towards me; 
it alighted on top of a dead ironbark tree, uttering a few low notes, then 
immediately flew to where a rather small branch had been broken off the 
very top of the tree ; out of a hollow in this another bird popped its head, and 
the other bird fed it. The nest contained two fresh eggs. All the other nests I 
have examined containing eggs, with one exception, were found by seeing the 
birds carrying nesting material. The nests are not nearly so substantial as those 
of the Brown, being composed ahnost entirely of fur, with the addition of a little 
dry grass. I have examined nests containing fresh eggs from the last week in 
August till the middle of October. The clutch is usually two, sometimes three.” 
Mr. E. J. Christian also wrote : “ Most of the time it keeps up a shrill 
chattering, especially if disturbed. If one approaches the nest the birds will 
swiftly fly past uttering a peculiar p-i-n-g such as a rifle bullet makes. It 
seems to prefer dead trees as I very seldom see it on a green one, but can see 
it almost any day on any dead tree here.” 
Captain S. A. White has written me : “ The White-throated Tree- 
creeper has a very wide range and I have found it in nearly every well- 
timbered locality on the coastal belt, its unmistakeable cry is part of the forest 
calls. The fact that the young have the upper tail-coverts ruddy-brown for 
the first year has led many field workers to imagine that they had met with 
a new bird. The variety inhabiting South Australia is found all along the 
Mount Lofty Ranges, being much more plentiful towards the western end, 
this being no doubt due to the presence of the big stringy-bark forests there. 
I have found them nesting in October and November, and at times they will 
lay their eggs upon the decayed wood a long way down a hollow trunk or 
limb. They are almost entirely insectivorous.” 
Concerning the Birds of Mallaeoota, Victoria, Captain White wrote: 
“ Very plentiful, especially amongst the Angophora trees near the coast. They 
were nesting at the time of our visit, and nests containing young were observed. 
Many of the immature birds, in their first year’s plumage, accompanied the 
mature birds. The females of the former were adorned with deep rufous 
upper tail-coverts, which coloration appears on the young in the nest, and 
which they retain for the first year. Strange to say, two singular features 
are connected with the females of this species. One is having a small orange- 
coloured spot just below the ear-coverts—this distinguishes the female at 
108 
