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note, like the rippling of running water?” “Oh, that will be

the Pied Grallina,” I replied. “I beg your pardon?” “The

Grallina; the Pied Grallina ; that handsome black and white

bird which waves and folds its wings so curiously as it utters a

wild, almost Curlew-like, cry.” He shifted uneasily in his chair,

and again suggested that he would like to know the name; but

I could only add, “ Grallina picata ; or Grallina australis , as it

is called by the Zoological Society.” The gentleman was not

satisfied ; but he had too much self control to unseemingly

betray that he was annoyed, and too much courtesy to pursue

the matter further. Even Mrs. Phillipps, with all her advantages

of close companionship with the bird, a great favourite of hers,

has not taken kindly to his name, but calls him Agricola ; and

by his name of Agricola he is always known between ourselves.


The Grallina is known in Australia as the Little Magpie,

to distinguish it from “The Magpie,” as the several species of

Piping Crows are indiscriminately called ; and I am inclined to

think, but am not sure, that it is identical with the “ Mud Lark”

of some parts of the Australian Continent. The names are not

recognised in this country, however, and rightly not, for they

are misleading, as the bird has nothing of the Magpie about it

but the pied coat, and nothing whatever of the Lark that I can

perceive.


Since his last moult, my Grallina has been an exception¬

ally handsome bird, and as graceful and elegant as he is

handsome. The white body and other parts are of the purest

white, and the blue-black glossy and brilliant. A specimen of

the species, likewise a male, may be seen in the Western

Aviaries at the Zoological Gardens—if nothing has happened to

him since I was there last. We each obtained a pair in 1899 ;

but neither female recovered from the effects of the journey, &c.,

whilst each male keeps in perfect health and condition.


O11 21 st August, 1900, I secured a pair of very active,

lively, short-legged, uncommon looking birds of a species which,

I think, has not been seen in this country for many years. It

conies from the Himalayas, and is of a chestnut-red colour set

off with black and a touch of white, of rather small size, and

goes bobbing and bounding about the aviary like an India-rubber

ball, sometimes with the head, ofttimes with the tail, uppermost.

The sexes are nominally alike, and both are attractive, the male

conspicuously so when he raises his crest and salutes his lady,

or holds himself up by her side in stately dignity ; and he is

cpiite a musical box in the variety of his call notes and warblings



