308 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



quiry respecting the bird amongst the sawyers and others, 

 all of whom agree that it is distinct ; some of them had shot 

 specimens of the M. siiperha at Camden Haven and other 

 localities, but had never seen the present bird further to the 

 south than the Nambucca River ; they also state that the new 

 bird is not so timid as the old one, and is consequently more 

 easily shot. The locality it frequents consists of mountain- 

 ridges not very densely covered with brush ; it passes most of 

 its time on the ground, feeding and strutting about with the 

 tail reflected over the back to within an inch or two of the 

 head, and with the wings dropping on the ground. Each 

 bird forms for itself three or four ' corrohorying places' as the 

 sawyers call them ; they consist of holes scratched in the sandy 

 ground about two feet and a half in diameter by sixteen, 

 eighteen, or twenty inches in depth, and about three or four 

 hundred yards apart. Whenever you get sight of the bird, 

 which can only be done with the greatest caution and by taking 

 advantage of intervening objects to shelter yourself from its 

 observation, you will find it in one or other of these holes, 

 into which it frequently jumps and seems to be feeding, then 

 ascends again and struts roimd and round the place, imitating 

 with its powerful musical voice any bird it may chance to 

 hear around it ; the note of the Dacelo gigcis it imitates to 

 perfection ; its own whistle is exceedingly beautiful and 

 varied. No sooner does it percei(^e an intruder than it flies 

 up into the nearest tree, first alighting on the lowermost 

 branches and then ascending by a succession of jumps until 

 it reaches the top, whence it instantly darts off to another 

 of its play-grounds. The stomachs of those I dissected in- 

 variably contained insects, with scarcely a trace of any other 

 material." 



The late F. Strange informed me that he met with the bird 

 " in the cedar-brushes which skirt Turanga Creek, Richmond 

 River. Like the M. superha, it is of a shy disposition. I spent 

 ten days in the midst of the cedar-brushes in the hope of learn- 



