Vol. II. 

 1903 



J Stray FeatJiers. 223 



have eaten his small brothers and sisters, but apparently he 

 didn't ; he looked very comical, sitting on the edge of the nest in 

 a defiant attitude (see Plate XII.), and the two little ones in the 

 centre trying to hide one behind the other, and rolling the two 

 eggs about in their efforts to do so. The parent birds must 

 have had a very busy time of it keeping their two broods 

 supplied with food. I subsequently learnt of a second case near 

 Avoca (Victoria), which was almost similar, except that there 

 were no eggs in the nest, only one young one about a month or 

 six weeks old, and three about a week old, which shows that these 

 birds do occasionally rear double clutches. It would be 

 interesting to hear if any other Aust. O.U. members have 

 observed the same thing.— D. Le Souef. 12/ 1/03. 



Tooth-billed Bower-Bird. — On the 28th December, 1902, 

 I spent a very pleasant and instructive morning examining the 

 playgrounds of this strange bird. Under the guidance of Mr. 

 A. Elgner, of Kuranda, who is an enthusiastic bird-lover and 

 very close observer, I had the opportunity of inspecting five 

 playgrounds, all within a few miles of Kuranda. 



No. I was situated in a dense tangle, of lawyer cane, and the 

 loud call of the bird was heard long before we reached the 

 locality, but, though we crawled as silently as possible towards 

 our objective, the bird was disturbed by our approach. We lay 

 down within a few feet of the playground, and in a few minutes 

 our friend came back and perched on a twig about 2 feet 

 above the chosen spot. We were then treated to a wonderful 

 display of the bird's powers of mimicry, and by the way in 

 which he stretched and peeped in our direction one judged that 

 he was quite aware that he had an interested audience. The 

 first effort was the whistle of the Rusty Shrike-Thrush, which 

 he imitated really well, though one might notice that though 

 the note was strong it lacked the melody and roundness of the 

 original. Then came the rolling note of the Black Butcher- 

 Bird, a call very much resembling that of the Chough, and which 

 might be an imitation of either or both. After that the scream 

 of the Blue-bellied Lorikeet was reproduced, followed by that of 

 the Spotted Cat-Bird. Although the last-named call was a 

 splendid imitation, it seemed to require a considerable effort to 

 produce it, and was followed by a low after-note, to hear which 

 one had to listen carefully. Perhaps the bird's masterpiece was 

 the call of the Drongo-Shrike, a harsh, grating note. Possibly 

 he gave us that just to prove that his repertoire was a varied one. 

 After watching and listening to the bird for a considerable time, 

 we reluctantly disturbed him, as we wished to closely examine 

 the playground. The cleared space was about 6 or 7 feet 

 long by 4 wide, and was swept as clean as one could do 

 it with a broom. Twenty-five large leaves, all fresh, were placed. 



