SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 49 



These birds have very similar habits ; they rest on the ground during the 

 daytime and are most active at twilight and at dawn, when they capture all 

 kinds of night-flying insects on the wing. Their large black eyes and long 

 powerful wings are admirably adapted to their nocturnal habits. Though 

 the male and female are very similar in their markings, the plumage of the 

 latter is more brightly coloured, and she is slightly larger than her mate. 

 She constructs no nest, simply depositing her single, finely-spotted e^g upon 

 the soil, sheltered by a tussock or log. 



Several popular names (such as Moth-owl, Fern-owl, and the remarkable 

 one of Goatsucker) have been given to these birds by the rural population 

 of England. The bird known in North America under the popular name of 

 Whip-poor-Will is a nightjar. 



The Harmonious Thrush {Collyriocincla harmonica Latham). 

 Gould's Handbook, vol. I. p. 220, No. 123 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 149, No. S15. 



The Harmonious Thrush is a very typical I'epresentative of the shrike- 

 thrushes, of which Gould lists six species peculiar to Australia and Tasmania, 

 each of which seems to have its own particular range. Our species is 

 sometimes known as the Grey Shrike-thrush, and White, in his " Voyage ta 

 New South Wales," figured and described it under the name of the Port 

 Jackson Thrush, but its remarkably clear notes, taken in conjunction with 

 its thrush-like form and habits, entitle the name I have chosen to popularity. 



This is a rather thick-set bird of a uniform greyish-brown tint, with the 

 under-surface lighter and face whitish, but its large bright eyes are its most 

 striking character. It has an extended range over the greater part of eastern 

 Australia from Queensland to Victoria and is scattered over South Australia. 

 Though usually met with hunting over the ground in forest country, it is 

 very often noticeable in the tree-planted streets of country towns, where it 

 will fearlessly fly down to the roadside to pick up incautious insects. Most 

 of its food consists of ground-living insects. Its deep, clear call-notes are 

 very distinctive, and by this means its resting-place can be easily located. 



The nest is placed in any sheltered position situated on the bank of a 

 creek or watercourse in the brush, on the bole of a tree, or a ledge of rock. 

 It is cup-shaped, constructed from strips of bark, leaves, and fibrous roots . 

 and usually contains three rounded pearly-white eggs, blotched and spotted 

 with olive and grey. 



The Yellow-breasted Thickhead (Pachycephala gutturalis Latham). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 207, No. 113 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 151, No. 322. 

 The group to which this handsome species belongs contains a, number of 

 birds known as thickheads. Leach calls the birds in this group, whistlers^ 

 and considers the former name ill-choosen, but it seems to me wiser, until a 

 more definite name than whistler is chosen, to adhere to the old and well- 

 known group name first given. Even the popular name is not unanimously 

 used. In Campbell's "Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds" our thick- 



