194 Mattingley, The Coaclnvhip-Bird. \^^ 



April 



photographed, and will never remain in the nest if once 

 disturbed ; but, contrary to general opinion, I found that 

 during the nesting season the adult birds were exceedingly 

 tractable, so much so that, whilst I was standing in the scrub 

 waiting to take a picture of them feeding their young ones, the 

 parents scratched the ground, in their search for grubs, right at 

 my feet, throwing the leaves and other debris over my boots, 

 quite unperturbed at my presence. This has happened on 

 several occasions whilst I have been quietly waiting in a gully 

 trying to obtain photographs of other species of birds. The 

 female Coachwhip invariably feeds the young herself, and 

 collects most of the food supply for them. The male, although 

 he approaches within a few feet of the nest, rarely comes to the 

 young ones unless they have been disturbed and are calling for 

 help, and then he is only with them for a few seconds, taking 

 observations, and making meanwhile that peculiar chuckling 

 note that both the male and female use when communicating 

 with their young ones, and also when searching for food for 

 them in the vicinity of the nest. The female is particularly bold, 

 and has several times perched within a few inches of me as I sat 

 quietly brushing off mosquitoes in the scrub awaiting the 

 opportunity of photographing her attending her nestlings. 

 When she had eyed me from many points of vantage, she 

 decided that I was innocuous, and went on searching for insects. 

 Whilst in such close communion with these birds I made the 

 following notes, which can be verified by those observers who 

 were with me when I took the illustration portrayed. The male 

 makes the whip-crack sound, and is answered by the female, 

 both birds using a t\vo-s}-llable call. Sometimes, however, the 

 call of the male is not answered by his mate. She sometimes 

 calls first, but is never answered with the whip-crack note of the 

 male. In one instance, at Griffiths' Gully, Dandenong Ranges, 

 on the 2 1st January this year, a member of the B.O.C. watched 

 the throat of the male, whilst the throat of the female was placed 

 under my observation, at a distance from them of 2 or 3 yards 

 only. In this case the male made the whip-like crack and the 

 female the answer. The male's call, if put into words, would some- 

 what resemble " We-e-e-whit," the " we-e-e " representing the 

 long-drawn swish of the whip and the "whit" the crack, whilst 

 the female called " Way-we " quickly and sharply. Sometimes I 

 have heard the male make the opening " swish " call and not 

 finish up with the crack, but in this case he was never answered 

 by his mate. Hence my observations indicate that the note of 

 the Coachwhip-Bird is a call to ascertain the locality of its mate, 

 and when the note is not completed it is because either bird has 

 discovered the other's whereabouts. It therefore seems highly 

 improbable that one bird should both call and then answer 

 itself. The young nestlings are as a rule covered with small 



