sis beauty subjects him nevertheless they will

nstinetive consciousness of the danger to which h

to have

frequently build their little nest and
f vat Sydney, and T saw a pair busily employed in constructing their nest in a

vir their young in the most populous places. Several broods are reared

annually in the Botanie Garden
tree close to the door of the C

vacitates it for protracted flight, but the amazing fa
vencates for this deficiency: this mode of progression is searcely to be

lonial Seeretary’s Office in that town. ‘The short and rounded wing
xcility with which it is enabled to pass over the

surface of the ground fully comp
called running, but is rather a succession of boundin :
nuicularly or thrown forward over the back in fact, except during fight,

ng hops, performed with great rapidity: while thus

employed its tail is carried perpe
this organ is rarely, if ever, carried horizontally.

The breeding-season continues from September to January, during which period at Teast two, if not

thee, broods ave reared: the young of one being. scarcely old enough to provide for themselves, before

the female again commences laying: independently of rearing her own young, she is also the foster parent
Af the Brome Cuckoo (Claleites lcidus), a single cay of which species is frequently found deposited
her nest; but by what means, is, asin the case of the Buropean Cuckoo, unknown,

‘The mest, which is dome-shaped, with a small ole at the side for an entrance, is generally constructed of
arasses, ined with feathers or hair: the site chosen for its erection is usually near the ground, in a
ae taded bush, tuft of grass, or under the shelter of a bank. ‘The eggs are generally four in number, of a
ilelicate feshewhite, sprinkled with spots and blotches of reddish brown, which are more abundant, and
form an irrewular zone at the larger extremity: they are eight lines long by five and a half broad:

The song is a hurried strain impossible to describe, but somewhat resembling that of the Wren of
Burope, a bird to which the Mater also assimilate in many of their actions.

The stomach is muscular, and the food consists of insects of various kinds, collected on the ground, the
trunks of fillen tree

“The male in summer has the crown of the head, ear-coverts and a lunar-shaped mark on the upper part
of the back light metallic blues lores, line over the eye, occiput, seapularies, back, rump and upper tail
coverts velvety black throat and chest bluish black, bounded below by a band of velvety black 5 tail deep
blue, indistinetly barred with a darker hue and finely tipped with white; wings brown; under surface bully
white, tinged with blue on the flanks; irides blackish brown s bill black; feet brown. i

Te female has the lores and a circle surrounding the eye reddish brown upper surface, wings and tail
brown under surface brownish whites bill reddish brown; feet fleshy brown,

The Plate represents two males and a female with the nest, the former engaged in feeding a young
Cuckoo.