^°'qo6^' I Mattinglev, The CoacJnvhip-Bird. IQ^ 



effect of his introduction to the whip-like crack, accidental as it 

 is in most cases, is one of bewildering curiosity, gradually 

 changing into a charmed and interesting feeling as he learns 

 that the sound issues from a bird. He is all the more fascinated 

 when, on closer inspection, he finds that the author of it is a 

 small bird, about 9 inches in length, of greenish-black plumage, 

 showing a mottled white patch on the chest and a white patch 

 on either side of the throat. Surmounting a dark, fairly large, 

 luminous eye, is a dark erectile crest, giving the impression that 

 this bird is both active and alert. Starting with a limpid, 

 long-drawn sound closely resembling the noise produced by the 

 whirling of a whip-lash preparatory to its being swished through 

 the air to terminate in the sharp crack so well known, the male 

 bird gradually merges his voice into the swish of the lash, 

 ending in a loud, sharp crack-like note. The volume of sound 

 produced is so great that it can often be heard a quarter of a 

 mile away, as one sits listening in some quiet fern gully. The 

 call of the male bird is usually, but not always, answered by the 

 female with a two-note call, somewhat softer in tone, and quite 

 separate from the call of the male, although quickly following it, 

 but not in any way blending with it, so much so that a person 

 who has not systematically and carefully studied the call of 

 these birds would not associate the call of the female with that 

 of the male when some distance away. Some ornithologists 

 maintain that the whole of the notes are produced by one bird 

 alone, hence confusion and misunderstanding has arisen. The 

 reason, however, that there is a diversity of opinion on this 

 question is that those who maintain that the whole of the notes 

 are produced by one bird do not in any way associate the 

 answering call of the female with the Coachwhip-Bird. Some 

 persons, in answer to the observers who maintain that two birds 

 make the complete call, even suggest that it may be a case of 

 ventriloquism. The former believe that those who hold that it is 

 made by two birds are attempting to split up the two-note call 

 of the male represented by the whip-crack sound. Hence the 

 following notes, recorded at different dates in my field book, 

 may help to clear up the mystery that veils the call of this 

 interesting bird, although it has been previously recorded that 

 the notes were made by two birds.* 



On 27th November, 1905, I proceeded to Olinda with other 

 members of the Bird Observers' Club to photograph a nest of 

 the Coachwhip that contained two eggs, and also a nest con- 

 taining two young birds, which scrambled out of the nest, 

 although they could not fly, and made off along the ground 

 directly the vegetation around their nest was handled. The 

 young Coachwhips are the shyest nestlings that I have ever 



* See " Nests and Eggs " (A. J. Campbell). 



