Page:The Emu volume 4.djvu/15

 York gum tree, the main branches of which overhung the road. The nest was placed some 30 feet high above the road. One of the attendant parent birds, on observing us, immediately elongated itself and became rigid along the length of the limb, and so resembled the surroundings as almost to defy detection. I have always been struck with the similarity of the habit of the bird in so elongating and stiffening itself to that of some of the iguanas, which perform the same acts when observed. Can it be a device by each to escape detection inherited from a common ancestor? As regards the second nest, Mr. Conigrave climbed up a neighbouring branch of the same tree, and on our passing up his camera, he in that unique position took a photograph of the nest and young on a level plane. Unfortunately, on reaching Perth he found that the plate had been damaged in transit. We could not help remarking the swift, straight, and prolonged flight that the owner of each nest made when disturbed. As these were flights made in the daytime it may be fairly assumed that the strong light of day does not materially affect their sight.

Another interesting nest that we discovered was that of Uroactus audax. It was situated in the fork of a salmon gum tree at a height of about 50 feet from the ground. The materials forming the nest structure would, we estimated, half-fill a dray. It was composed outwardly of dry sticks. Underneath the nest was a litter of the same material, which had either fallen in the course of construction or with the winds, or perhaps from both causes. In the litter we picked up the lower part of the leg of a young kangaroo, newly killed, as also the skull of another one. The other portions of the bodies had evidently provided food supplies for the young, whom we could see as they craned their necks and scrutinized us over the rim of the nest. Unfortunately, we had not any climbing apparatus with us, and as the trunk of the tree was too thick and free of smaller limbs and the bark too smooth, we had to abandon the desire we had to make a closer inspection of the occupants and their home, and to get a photograph illustrative of the young Wedge-tailed Eagle chez nous. One of the most interesting nests was probably that of a new species recently described—Acanthiza pallida. The nest was built in a small tree on the roadside opposite a brush-fence enclosure which had been used to muster bush sheep. The nest was fully 2 feet long and divided into four compartments for the reception of eggs, each compartment surmounted with a "look-out" or "cock's nest." Unfortunately the laying season had passed, and the nest or nests was or were untenanted, and it was therefore impossible to say whether or not a separate pair of birds occupied each. Judging by the residues left in the bottom of each nest, I am inclined to think that they were separately tenanted, but I should not care to positively assert that they were so. It is perhaps interesting to know that these birds share with the African Weaver-Birds the sociable habit of