Page:The Emu volume 9.djvu/274

 and to aid in its concealment dried spinifex stems had been loosely piled on the top. My seventh nest was a last year's one, and differed in one respect from all the others. A year or two ago a large tract of the spinifex plain had been swept by a fire. A growth of a species of soft grass had taken the place of the spinifex. This grass grows in swollen tussocks, and is very dense. Amongst a group of these tussocks, and at the foot of a dead bush, was an Amytornis nest. No spinifex was employed in the construction of this, the last nest I found. (For a typical nest see illustration.)

Before I left Bore Well I had the luck to catch a young Striated Grass-Wren, getting my hands well pricked in the process, the points of the spinifex breaking off in the wounds and producing much irritation. This young bird was much duller in colour than adults, snuff-brown rather than ferruginous-brown. The striations on the throat and breast were visible. The under parts were greyer, but palest on throat and abdomen. Iris coffee-brown; beak horn colour, with a pink tinge, especially on the lower mandible; legs, feet, and claws flesh-pink. This nestling uttered the shriek of the parent birds when I chased it. The latter both showed themselves, but kept at a respectful distance. Another pair probably had a brood in the spinifex, as on my imitating the cry of a bird in distress they actually followed me, the female showing herself so freely that I could easily distinguish her from the male by her rufous flanks and sides of breast. In a series of male skins not much difference in plumage is apparent, but in what I take to be older birds the striations on the throat and breast are more pronounced. The seven eggs I obtained do not vary much in size or shape, but in several of them the markings have a tendency to form a zone.

(Artamus superciliosus).—This Wood-Swallow is not very well known as a visitor to this State. In the early part of August many Wood-Swallows were migrating to the west and north-west, and a flock of over a thousand birds became weather-bound, heavy gales with rain setting in from the south-west. These were mostly Artamus personatus, but amongst them I detected several darker individuals of a more robust build. I managed to shoot one or two of either sex. They proved to be of the present species.

(Artamus cinereus).—A single specimen obtained at Lake Violet.

(Artamus personatus).—Large numbers passed during the latter half of July, and again during the earlier part of August. On the spinifex plain at Bore Well during the latter period a large flock became weather-bound. I was hunting for Amytornis nests, and these Wood-Swallows proved a serious distraction. It was very fascinating to watch such large numbers of birds feeding all round one. They were not hawking for insects, but were extracting the nectar from the flowers of a very curious plant, which was growing abundantly where the spinifex had quite recently been swept clean by a bush-fire. I took a specimen of this plant to Perth, and submitted it to Dr. Alexander Morrison, late Government Botanist to this State. He tells me it is a very little known species, having quite recently been figured and described. He names it Brachysema daviesioides. The most curious habit of this plant is that it throws out its flowers at the base of the stalk. The Wood-Swallows were crouching down quite flat in extracting the nectar, and their foreheads and crowns were thickly coated with the yellow pollen. All these flights of Wood-Swallows were accompanied by flocks of Ephthianura tricolor, and by small numbers of the Pied Honey-eater (Entomophila leucomelas).

A number of the present species remained to breed in the scrub just on the edge of the spinifex plain. I examined a dozen or two of their fragile, ill-constructed nests. None contained more than two eggs. The nests were