Australian Birds. 57 



" to repair the shingling of their roof which I had displaced, and, rising 

 " hurriedly. I heard overhead the loud laugh of two kookaburras, who 



■ had no doubt been watching me carefully In the deeper 



" shade lovely little Blue Wrens flew about, with their long tails twisting 

 ' about — often right over their heads — and red and black ones also. And 

 '' the Willie Wagtails, which are really flycatchers, were flying about 

 " wagging their tails sideways, not up and down as their English 

 " namesakes do. Suddenly I heard a strange sound like the cracking 

 " of a whip. I did not then know of the Stock-bird (Coachman or 

 " Coach-whip Bird. — W.T.P.), and supposed it to be some human being, 

 "bat could not understand what he was doing in that solitary place; but 

 ■' later on I heard several more, and found the noise to proceed from a 

 " little bird coloured something hke our tits. It is said that it is only 

 " the inales which make the crack, but at any rate it is strange how loud a 



' sound can proceed from such a small throat. Once, later on, in a deep 

 '■ ravine in the mountains, I heard the same sounds again, made by several 

 " birds cracking against each other, and that time the noise was most 

 " striking in volume. It is one of the most distinctive bird-notes I have 



'' heard I slept heavily that first night, till roused at dawn by 



' the heavenly music of the carol of the magpies in the valley below." 



From Chapter V., The Glasshouse Mountains, the 

 following' extracts proved of interest to me : 



" And I found throughout Australia that few of the flowers have 

 "any scent, or if they have, it is an unpleasant one: indeed sometimes it 

 " scents the air most unpleasantly. The wattles are exceptions to the 

 " rule. The Parrots which were commonest in my swamp were the 



" glorious King Lories (King Parrakeet. — W.T.P.), and the innumerable 

 " Blue Mountain Parrots (Trichoglossus novae-hollandiae . — W.T.P.), or 

 " Brush-tongued Lories, with coats of blue and red with yellow markings, 

 ' and they made the air gay by their brillianc\' and vast numbers. They 



' move northwards in dense flocks to breed In the neighbour- 



" hood of the settlements there were numberless birds, and every day I 

 " discovered new varieties, for Australia is rich in bird-life. I saw 



" numbers of pigeons, flock and bronze-wings, and beautiful little wren- 

 " warblers of blue and red colouring. There was one kind called fire-tail, 

 " which makes a nest like a stocking hanging by the toe, the eggs being 

 ■' placed in the heel of the stocking. Then there is the Yellow-tailed Tit, 



■ one of which built near the house a nest of two storeys, though what 

 " the upper storey is built for no one knows, as it never seems to be used. 

 " Willie Wagtails, too, are very common there, and build lovely cup-nests 

 " of mud of various shapes. Mud is not much used by Australian 

 " birds, I find, except those of the swallow family and the magpie lark. 



' This, by the way, is neither a magpie nor a lark, but a wood-shrike, 

 " though its exact position amongst Australian birds is not yet settled." 



" Perhaps of all the birds I saw in Australia I love best the Superb 

 " Warbler, with his brilliant coat of blue and black velvet. One male 

 " usually has four or five plain-coloured mates." 



