CHAPTER XII. 



CoACHWHip Bird. 



THE subject of this chapter is one of those rarer and 

 less-known birds, whose portrait the bird-photo- 

 grapher prizes greatly. Our few studies of the 

 species are a source of additional satisfaction from 

 the fact that they were hard-earned. For several seasons 

 we tried constantly to obtain a picture, but in vain. 



We have been in considerable doubt as to the correct 

 heading under which to mention the Coachwhip Bird. We 

 were faced with the fact that our experience of it had been 

 almost wholly confined to the class of country described 

 hereafter as Mountain Gullies. In our first draft, in fact, 

 the Whip Bird was included in that portion of the book. 

 It was on account of a fear in our minds lest we should 

 mislead, and perhaps disappoint, the beginner that we 

 decided to alter our original intention. We have men- 

 tioned more than once that the deep mountain gullies are 

 the most diflficult places for the practise of the bird-photo- 

 grapher's art. The Whip Bird is found there, but not there 

 alone, so we have decided, in fairness to the beginner who 

 will naturally experience a desire to picture rarer birds, 

 that we should point out that there are many localities 

 which provide nesting places for this remarkable one, with- 

 out imposing the serious disabilities, from a photographic 

 point of view, which the mountain gullies certainly do. 

 Even along the banks of the Dandenong Creek a little 

 beyond Wheeler's Hill in the Oakleigh district we have 

 found the bird nesting. 



About Ferntree Gully the Coachwhip Bird abounds, 



185 



