^"'I'g.^'*'] Coi.E, Notes iil^on the Ground Cucl<oo-Shrihe. 1 85 



them were perched close together in the toj) of a low sa[)ling, my 

 attention being again attracted by the sound Woof, woof, whilst 

 I was cycling along. The bird, when found sitting as described, 

 does not take fright easily, and, although the pair of birds seen 

 at Euroa was flushed from the trees several times, no attempt 

 was made to return to the tree flushed from, to settle upon the 

 groiind, or to volplane as thev did after the first time of taking 

 flight. 



Undoubtedly, the peculiar and circular flights of /-'. p]iasianelhi 

 at dusk on the evening of 5th June, 1914, were controlled by an 

 im])ulse to return each time to the tree and branch they had 

 selected as a roosting-place for the night. Possibly it is a 

 characteristic of this bird to return, if disturbed after having 

 settled down for the night, to the tree selected for roosting in. 



Morning Song of the Noisy Miner (Myzantha 

 garrula). 



By Robert Hall, C.M.B.O.U., C.M.Z.S., R.A.O.U., Hobart. 

 That v^ery common bird, the Noisy Miner, is without credit for 

 its morning song — a psalm of dawn. Rather, we incline to 

 ridicule it for the poverty of music in its notes. They are mostly 

 calls or alarms. That is true with regard to its Ufe between 

 sunrise and sunset. To my great surprise, an agreeable phase 

 of this bird's life-history has shown itself. Before sunrise, and as 

 the day breaks, a solitary bird, judging by the general quiet, will 

 pour forth for twenty minutes a most agreeable song in its nesting 

 area. It is a song of short phrases, and not as continuous as that 

 of the Skylark {Alaiida) in the day-time or of the Bush-Lark 

 (Mirafra) in the moonlight, or by the Reed-Warbler [Acrocephalus) 

 within its bed of reeds. The song of the Black-and-White Fantail 

 {Rhipidiira fHotacilloides), made up of five notes, is very simple 

 when compared, and is practically at the opposite pole to that of 

 Alanda or Mirafra. So even and so sweet is the calm of the song 

 that it certainly is not one of rivalry. There is no flight in song 

 as with Mirafra, and it is too much in the dark for display of 

 plumage. The phrases have intervals of a few seconds, and they 

 are very simple. The two liquid notes rendered as Ko-tek remind 

 me of the contralto notes of the Magpie-Lark {Grallina picata). 



The rendering given of this song of dawn is to be taken as 

 correct with latitude. The bird itself on different mornings will 

 make its variations, both in pitch and in the order of the phrases, 

 and our musical notation does not yet seem possible for bird 

 song. 



On ist October, just when the first of the daylight came along, 

 and when birds and animals in general were asleep, in a perfectly 

 calm air a voice broke the stillness, clearly and crisply, with 

 Ko-tek, ko-tek, ko-tek. With an interval of three seconds 



