l8o Banfield, The Spangled Drongo-Shrike. [ist^'wil 



feat performed daily for my special edification cannot be 

 foregone. 



All birds, save the bloodthirsty, sneaking Falcon, are pri- 

 vileged, but none appreciates the rights he enjoys as acutely as 

 the Drongo, and none takes such liberties. So, when my ears 

 are assailed with a hopelessly discordant " jangle," I know that 

 my friend the Drongo is ringing his bell as a preliminary 

 advertisement of his superb act. As he jangles " out of tune 

 and harsh," he impels himself with all his might up into the sky 

 almost perpendicularly. At the extreme limit of flight his 

 utterances change, and with stiffened wings, distended to the 

 utmost over his back, he casts himself headlong towards the 

 earth, to the accompaniment of a torrent of twittering, too sharp 

 and rapid and violent for distinct enunciation. Has the wilful 

 bird gone mad that he should deliriously dash himself to death ? 

 Can he possibly check himself .f* Just as one feels constrained 

 to rouse him to a sense of danger from his giddy exploit by a 

 sharp exclamation, the Drongo spreads his wings, and with an 

 impudent whistle flies off to a tree to " chink " and "clink" as 

 he flirts his tail with self-satisfaction over the neat performance 

 of an exciting and incomparable feat. 



The Drongo seems specially happy in the company of his 

 consort. A proud fellow came close to the spot whither my 

 leisure had led the other morning, and "jangled " so loudly that 

 his lady came to ascertain the cause. Sitting side by side on a 

 slender branch they continued the chant, and as they "jangled" 

 they flicked their tails and tremulously shook their partially 

 extended wings as does a hungry and expectant youngster of 

 the species. Then the lord and master reversed his position, so 

 that his back was presented to the audience, and, looking into 

 the eyes of his lady, he "jangled," and she "jangled " in unison, 

 " in full-throated ease." At the conclusion of a sustained effort, 

 he hopped round again, and, facing me, bobbed and bowed so 

 expressively that I feel sure he wished to announce that there 

 were no two birds on the island who could sing that delightful 

 love-song more tunefully. And they repeated it three times 

 before the lady flew off to the nest on the Moreton Bay ash 20 

 yards off 



In the evening, at this season, the Drongo makes himself quite 

 at home. In the soil in the cleared space about the house are 

 thousands of ivory-white grubs, which, developing into chubby 

 brown beetles, are, from the very best of testimony, regarded as 

 dainties by birds. But the beetles, realising in a dim, earth- 

 encumbered, lumbering style that it is fatal to emerge either in 

 broad daylight, when many enemies are about, or when night 

 has fallen and the wailing Stone-Plover, and the sedate Mopoke, 

 and the noisy " Chop-chop " (Nightjar) are prowling and 

 flitting, choose the few minutes of dusk for their exit from the 



