^°i9?i^'] CHISHOLM, Notes on Izvo Xcto Birds. 7 



Action continued. Smith (lni\c the youn.q; one hack whence it 

 started, and the mother, racing alonj;- the loj^, half-Hew and hali- 

 galloped over the path in an ettort to lead her charge out of 

 assumed danger. The babe, following, hesitated on the end of 

 the moss-clatl log. what time 1 balanced a cap with intent t<.> 

 effect a capture. The young l)ird started — down came the cap 

 — and like a tlash it wheeled and returned to the friendly debris! 

 'Meanwhile, the mother waxed more excited than ever. She was 

 never still for a moment, though now and again she snapped up 

 an insect and swiftly passed it to the l)aby. .\.t this jioint it 

 began to seem that two young ones were on hand, but the move- 

 ments were so rapid, and the birds so hard to see in the tangle, 

 that one could not be sure. 'I'he same factors a])plied in res])ect 

 of the presence of the male l)ird. i do not think he a])peare 1 

 at all — certainh- there was none of his decisive calls — but it was 



TR.AITS AXl) \'()ICK OI- THP: FEMALE. 



The mother l)ir(l, however. wa> worth gxjing far to see. 

 Especially was she spectacular wlien travelling over o])eri 

 patches, with tail held erect over the back, exactly after the man- 

 ner oi a \\'ren-\\'arbler { Maliiriis). The young one (perha])> 

 two ) did exactly the same thing, Init all moved faster than even 

 the fastest of \\'rens. When the mother approached a l)al)e 

 with food, she used a soft, sweet little conversational chatter. 

 The response was a soft "Pipe-pipe-pipe !" Between whiles, the 

 female used also a "Tick! tick! tick!" This is evidentlv the 

 note which Jackson refers to as "resembling the sound produced 

 by pressing your tongue hard against the roof of the mouth, and 

 drawing it away suddenly." It is a good illustration. ()])vi- 

 ously, however, Jackson under-estimated the powers of the bird 

 — as also on the flight C|uestion — when he added that "this is 

 probably the only note she makes." In our case the "ticking" 

 sound was used much less freely than the anxious squeaking 

 note. 



( )ne other little trait on the part of the female Scrub-llird tb;.t 

 intere>ted me nnmensely was an ability to cling to trees. Often 

 in her rapid travels our worried little study jjerched, momen- 

 tarily, from one to two feet up in bushes and on tO]) of debri^^. 

 Again, once she bounced on to the side of a rough-barked tree, 

 and clung there, about two feet from the ground, for the space 

 of several seconds, meanwhile gazing keenly at us, the strange- 

 lookin.?; disturbers of her primeval peace. Her action then wa-; 

 after the sidelong manner of a Shrike-Robin (Eof>saltria), rather 

 than ;ne vertical position of a Tree-Creeper {Cliinacteris). In 

 view of this observatifin. it is scarcelv necessary to add that 1 

 was interested to read, in Mr. I'.ilwin Ashbv's notes on supposed 



