504 



NESTS AXP EGGS OF Al'STKAlJAN BIRDS. 



The authorities of the AustraUan Museum call the Lesser Bush Lai-k 

 by the vernacular name, " Rufous-winged," scarcely a good descriptive 

 title, seeing that both the Australian Bush Larks are more or less 

 rufous-winged. 



FAMILY— ATRICHIID^ : SCRUB BIRDS. 



414.- — Atrichia clamosa, Gould. — (204) 

 NOISY SCRUB BIRD. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. lii., pi. 34. 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xiii., p. 659. 



Geographical Bi.strihu/iuii. — West Austraha. 



3Vs< and i!(jgt>.— -See Appendix. 



Ohservatiowi — Gilbert first met with this singular bird in the dense 

 scrabs of South-western Australia, having had liis attention attracted 

 to it by its peculiar and noisy note long before he had an opportunity 

 of observing the creature itself, and it was only after many days of 

 patient and motionless watching among the sciiibs between Perth and 

 Augusta that he succeeded in obtaining sjwcimens, all of which were 

 males. Up to date I believe no female has been obtained. 



Upon the receipt of these, Gould founded his genus Atrichia, and 

 characterised the bird as one of the anomahes of the Australian faona. 



During my own western trip, when spending a few days in the forest 

 at Tor Bay, about fifteen miles to the westward of Albany, one of the 

 first strangers that came imder my notice was the Noisy Sciaib Bird, 

 which lives in the thickets of imdergrowth. Its veiy peculiar loud note 

 is a kind of shai-p whistle repeated eight or nine times rapidly, with 

 crescendo, concluding in a shai-p crack that makes the woods resound. 

 Notwithstanding the presence of several pairs in the neighboiu-hood, 

 I only succeeded in bagging one individual — and that a male — so rarely 

 did the birds break cover. The bird was about eight or nine inches 

 long, brownish, with very powerful legs and exceedingly diminutive 

 wings, pro\'ing that it must spend most or all of its time upon the 

 groimd. The nest and eggs of the Noisy Sciiib Bird would indeed have 

 been a trophy. I searched and searched in vain for tliem. Once 

 I thought I had discovered the nest, in a patch of scrub frequented by a 

 pair of birds. It was a covered nest, with a side entrance, not unlike 

 that of the Sericornis, but it was wthout eggs. 



