290 ROBERTS, Birds of the Granite Belt ITs'Apdi' 



flight; but not so our small brown fry, who pursue the more 

 slow-moving, heavily camouflaged insects and proclaim them- 

 selves only by the very intimate signs which they make to one 

 anotlier. 



Brevirostris has a tiz-tiz (which is a human palate sound), but 

 in addition has a loud song-like whistle (|uite unmistakable; the 

 former he uses as he feeds amongst the leaves, sometimes hover- 

 ing for a few seconds, the latter he utters when he has flown to 

 a fresh tree and wishes to proclaim it to his mate. .Ubo(/iilaris 

 you will know by his sweet song, his dash for the flying insect 

 with snappiufi beak, and his peculiar tail movement. Lineata 

 has a dental tiz-tiz and nothing else (E. J. Christian, Mathews' 

 B. of A., ix., p. 446, notwithstanding) ; but he puts uncanny 

 meaning into it when in flight, and it then sounds like the flight- 

 call of the Red-browed Finch. He clings and flutters and braves 

 any wind. Rcguloides is the plodder of the party, but he is 

 Hkewise the most numerous and ubiquitous, and surely he must 

 be brainy; in fact, he looks a wise, worried old thing. His 

 forehead seems to have wrinkles in it, and his washy white eye 

 completes the picture. He has a short friendly note, and a little 

 song; but further, he is the first dealt with to have a distinct 

 tribe mark, a widely shovi^n bufif rump in flight. 



Piisilla usually sits in dark ])laces, with his tail slightly erect, 

 his wings drooped, brown, alert, and with an air about him ; 

 sometimes he even seems slightly to erect the feathers of his 

 forehead. As a rule in two's and three's, at times in the winter 

 he collects his friends to feed up amongst the cypress and bottle- 

 brush husks ; but more often he will be found close to the ground. 

 He has a tribe call, and a rather harsh angry song. If the nest 

 with young is approached, the ])arents will come tpiite close, and 

 the bird will frequently utter a note like that of the "S'ellow Robin, 

 but whether this is accidental or not we do not know, as we 

 have never heard him imitating other birds, though we are aware 

 it has been recorded. Chrysorrlious everyone knows; his twitter 

 and song, the black line from the gape to the eye, and the lovely 

 spotted head which appears to be covered in a close-fitting cap 

 of Venetian lace; his yellow rump is widely dis{)layed in tlight. 

 Saijittata is a camouflage artist ; let an alarm note be sounded, 

 and he at once, without Cf)mmotion. merges into his surroundings. 

 He is as (juiet a mover as the ( iround-Iiird (Ciiieloso)iia), but 

 his gait is a short inconsi)icuous jump unlike that of the larger 

 bird, which walks or runs. (Otherwise his full breast and whole 

 bearing is like some miniature of that bird. Hut at times he 

 takes to the trees with strong flight, and sitting there sings more 

 sweetly than any other small bush bird. fusea hovers in front 

 of a bunch of leaves more often even than Brex'irostris, spreads 

 the tail to show the white spots, and after a real bird's-cyc \icw 

 proceeds to gather up his observations. 



