WHITE-WINGED CHOUGH. 
utmost facility. The White-winged Corcorax is a very early breeder, and 
generally rears more than one brood in a year, the breeding-season extending 
over the months of August, September, October and November. The nest is 
a most conspicuous fabric, composed of mud and straw, resembling a basin, 
and is usually placed on the horizontal branch of a tree near to and overhanging 
a brook. The eggs vary from four to seven in number. It has often struck 
me that more than one female deposited her eggs in the same nest, as four 
or five females may be frequently seen either in the same or the neighbouring 
trees, while only one nest is to be found. The bird generally evinces a preference 
for open forest land, but during the breeding-season affects the neighbourhood 
of brooks and lagoons, which may be accounted for by the fact of such 
situations being necessary to enable it to procure the mud to build its 
nest, besides whieh they also afford it an abundance of insect food.” 
IMr. Thos. P. Austin has written me from Cobbora, New South Wales : “ A 
very common species throughout the whole district, and found in all classes 
of country where there are living-trees, but they certainly prefer the more open 
forests, especially where there are yellow box-trees, in which they usually 
place their nests. They breed here in great numbers, often using the same 
nest year after year, just adding a little fresh mud to the top rim. If a nest 
falls down after using it, and before the next breeding-season, they will often 
build a new nest in the same tree. One flock has lived about my house for 
over twenty years, and for as long as I can remember they have reared their 
young in the same tree, and yet the flock does not appear to increase. Another 
nest about a mile from my house, on a branch almost overhanging one of my 
private roads, which was in use some years ago for several seasons, and w^as 
then not used again for I think six years and had almost disappeared, is now 
(Sept. 19th, 1920) built up again, and the birds sitting. During 1908 I made 
a special study of their eggs and examined twenty-seven complete clutches, 
which ranged from three to eight, but I found in every case where there were 
more than fi.ve eggs in a nest, they were of two distinct types, but when there 
were five or less I am quite satisfied they were laid by the same female. They 
start breeding early, most of them laying in August, but I have taken eggs as 
late as December 5th. A whole flock assists in the building of the nest, but I 
am of the opinion that a very small percentage of the females lay each year. 
Of course, they usually build their nests in trees within the vicinity of water, 
but very few have come under my notice placed in trees growing along banks 
of rivers; they are more likely to be found some little distance away from 
a dam or lagoon. Yet I have seen their nests, and in use, miles away from 
any water; these I should think were constructed during wet seasons in the 
past, when there was sufficient mud for them somewhere close at hand for them 
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