. Nests and eggs of birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania . nce two inchesin diameter, and the cavity below the opening only one inch and three-quarters in diameterby two in depth, and directly I flushed the female from it I could see three fresh eggs lyingat the bottom of the nest. It is generally built within a few inches of the ground, and isloosely attached to the stems of a low bush, coarse grass stems, or clump of ferns, or to afew dry twigs fallen among long dead grass, and often near a log. Although comparativelyrare in the neighbourhood of Sydney, nearly all the nests I have
. Nests and eggs of birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania . nce two inchesin diameter, and the cavity below the opening only one inch and three-quarters in diameterby two in depth, and directly I flushed the female from it I could see three fresh eggs lyingat the bottom of the nest. It is generally built within a few inches of the ground, and isloosely attached to the stems of a low bush, coarse grass stems, or clump of ferns, or to afew dry twigs fallen among long dead grass, and often near a log. Although comparativelyrare in the neighbourhood of Sydney, nearly all the nests I have found were in more exposedsituations than as a rule are the nests of the common Malurus supcrbus. I found the nestfigured above on the 13th .Vugust, 1900, at Middle Harbour, when only a few thin stripsof bark were laid in some long grass sheltered above by a low gum sapling. I examinedit several times during the next few weeks, and although added to since I first found it,thought it was deserted, as the birds were always in different parts of the scrub far removed. NEST AND KGGS OP LAMliEUT S SUPERB WARBLER. 220 from the nest. Msiting it on the rst October, seven weeks after it was first commenced, I wassurprised to flush the female from it, who was sitting on four partially incubated eggs. Afterphotographing the nest on the following day, the female returned to her eggs as soon as Iremoved the camera. These birds will often desert their nests if touched, and sometimes if evenapproached during construction. A pair from whose nest I took four fresh eggs on the 27thSeptember, igoo, at Roseville, I found again with a half built nest on the 14th October, in somelong grass under the fallen dead branches of a pear-tree, by watching the female carry materialto it. Although eventually nearly completed, the birds deserted it and constructed another nestand reared their young in some low ferns, about one hundred yards away. In all nests I ha\efound, the eggs or young were m
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidnestseggsofb, bookyear1901
