Page:The Emu volume 9.djvu/273

 great encouragement, and I resolved not to come away from the spinifex without authentic eggs of A. striatus, even if I had to camp out in their actual haunts.

I had been much astonished that I had found no nests of previous seasons. Having discovered several old Malurus nests, this was the more remarkable, and rather discouraging. On the last day of the month things took a turn for the better. In a tract of spinifex where the growth was rather stunted and in the form of rings rather than clumps, I found a nest of the previous season, and of the character I was searching for. It was placed on the top and half-embedded in the spinifex. Outwardly spinifex stems formed the bulk of the structure, but the woven part of the nest was of flat grasses, and the interior warmly and neatly lined with buff-coloured vegetable down from the plant known as Dicrastyles fulva. It was a domed nest, with the entrance at the side but rather nearer the top than the circumference. Viewed from above the entrance was invisible, and I had to stand back several yards before I could detect it. All the nests I found were of this character. In no sense could the nest be described as open or cup-shaped. My experience therefore differs considerably from that of other field naturalists (vide descriptions Campbell's "Nests and Eggs," also North's "Nests and Eggs of Birds found Breeding in Australia and Tasmania"). Finding this old nest was a step towards ultimate success, and I took careful stock of my surroundings. Hitherto I had imagined the most likely spot for the nest would be in some natural gap or depression in the large and vigorous clumps of spinifex. I was quite wrong. Of the seven nests I found (old and new) all were in tracts where the growth was low and more of the character of rings and lines than clumps. The only reasons I can imagine why this should have been so are that where the spinifex is less dense it shows more of the bleached stems of the plant, and thus the materials of the nest readily harmonize in colour and aid in its concealment. Also the sitting bird has a better view of approaching enemies, and can more readily slip off to a distance until the danger is past.

On 3rd September I found another similar nest, except that it looked newer. I cautiously felt within. Apparently it was empty, and the lining seemed to have been disturbed. I investigated further and became conscious of two solid objects embedded in the down of the lining. Gently tilting the nest up until I could look inside, I could just see a portion of the shell of a white egg. I soon had the pair out, and had the satisfaction of gazing upon my first eggs of the Striated Grass-Wren. They were pure white in colour, sparingly marked, chiefly at the broader end, with pale rufous-brown. They were nearly true ovals in shape. Texture of the shell fine, with a slight gloss. I saw no signs of either parent, neither could I hear the alarm note. Shortly afterwards I flushed a female right off her nest. This was in the usual situation, but there was a low growth of acacia amongst the spinifex, and the nest was right at the foot of one of these bushes. This nest contained two newly-hatched young. The lining of this nest was extremely neat, and formed a warm, soft bed, in the shape of a cup, for the young to rest upon. I tried in vain to entice the female back to the nest, but she utterly refused to show herself.

On the following day I found a fourth nest, containing two incubated eggs. It was a very windy day, and I nearly walked past the sitting female before she dashed off her eggs. The spinifex was again low and in the form of a ring, the nest being placed on the inner side of the ring, where the bleached stems of the plant were visible. In addition to some stunted acacias there was a growth of a species of Erica. I had often seen and heard of Grass-Wrens amongst tracts of these shrubs, but I had hitherto regarded such localities as favourite feeding-grounds. On 9th September I found another last season's nest, of the usual type; but three days later, on the top of a rise, and near a line of blood-wood eucalypts, I flushed a female from her nest in very low and sparse spinifex. This nest contained three eggs,