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Show 50 LETTER FROM MR. E. P. RAMSAY. [Jail. 23, being constructed of rough material, such as large sticks, stringy bark*, and dead ferns (Pteris aquilina) ; others of very fine rootlets and pieces of Hymenophyllum tunbridgense, which makes a remarkably neat nest. Braisher, the most successful of m y collectors, who also procured the young birds, called upon me a few days ago with some of the eggs, when I took the opportunity of getting all the particulars respecting the nidification. I find that in no instance did he meet with more than one egg or one young bird in the same nest. The birds commence to build in May, and lay their eggs in June and July. The female is not fed by the male while she is sitting, nor has Braisher ever observed the male bird near the place after she has laid her egg. The female frequently leaves her egg during the middle of the day to search for food. This may account for the length of time taken in the hatching, which sometimes extends over a month. The young do not leave the nest until they are eight or ten weeks old. When one is standing in front of the nest, the egg or the young bird can easily be seen in it. The female enters the nest head first, and then turns round and settles herself on the egg, with her tail sometimes over her back, but more often bent round by her side. Thus in time the tail becomes quite askew, and is a tolerable guide to the length of time the bird has been sitting. " The nests are for the most part placed on the darker side of the gullies and ravines. They are large, oval, domed structures, with the entrance in the front, are usually placed on the ground, at the foot of some stump or tree, by the side of a fallen log; sometimes they are placed on a ledge of rock in the face of a cliff at a considerable height from the ground; occasionally a nest is found in the end of a log which has been hollowed out by fire and formed in the shape of a scoop. They are always built on some solid foundation ; nor do I see how such a bulky and loosely built structure could hold together if placed otherwise ; great care must be taken in moving the nests to prevent their falling to pieces. I have now before me three nests:-No. 1, taken from the hollow end of a log; No. 2, from a ledge of rock; while the third was found by the side of a fallen tree. No. 2 is composed of fine roots and Hymenophyllum tunbridgense, with pieces of Hypnum, and lined with feathers; this nest is much more neat, smaller than the others, and looked very beautiful while the ferns and moss which covered the whole of the outside were fresh and green. Nos. 1 and 3 are much the same in appearance and size, being large, oval, dome-shaped structures of sticks, twigs, and roots interwoven loosely with pieces of bark and moss, roots of ferns, and fronds of Pteris aquilina; the inside is lined with rootlets and, finally, the long loose feathers from the flanks and backs of the birds. The entrance, which is in the side (or front), is not covered with a hood, nor does its upper edge hang over so as to conceal the egg. The lower edge, if anything, protrudes slightly in all the nests I have examined. The total length * The inner bark of Eucalyptus, used as ties by the bushmcn for almost all purposes. |