134 AN AUSTRALIAN BIRD BOOK. 



It flies little, preferring to keep near the dark scrubs, especially 

 the tea-tree scrub along the coast. 



The Song-Thrush and Blackbird have been successfully intro- 

 duced, and they are common in suburban gardens. Their de- 

 lightful song makes richer the lives of busy city dwellers, though 

 their attentions to soft fruits are not always appreciated. For 

 sweetness and fulness of notes, however, these introduced birds 

 cannot compare with our Harmonious Shrike-Thrush (315), de- 

 servedly named harmonica by Latham, a British ornithologist. 

 The call of the latter bird, however, is not so continuous as that of 

 the introduced birds. 



The four Australian birds known as Chats take the next sub- 

 family to themselves. The common Chat is known as a "Tang," 

 "Nun," and "Tin-tac." While the White-fronted Chat is very 

 common in the South, the beautiful Crimson-breasted Chat, with 

 its crimson cap and pure white throat, and the Orange-fronted 

 Chat, are found mostly in the dry interior, where they are known 

 as Salt-bush Canaries. A good common name is urgently re- 

 quired for this Australian sub-family of birds. North calls them 

 Nuns; but that name is preoccupied, and is suitable only 

 for one of them. I was much interested last week (January, 

 1911) to see a male White-fronted Chat feeding a fully-fledged 

 young Bronze Cuckoo. Two female Sparrows were also in at- 

 tendance, one of which fed the Cuckoo three times while I was 

 observing it. A female Bronze Cuckoo sat for some time by the 

 young one, but did not interfere, or offer to feed it. The Chat 

 returned the fifth time for the purpose of feeding the young 

 Cuckoo, when the passing of a motor-car broke up the party. 

 The young Cuckoo flew across the road and some distance on to 

 a bush, where it resumed its constant wheezing whine. It is 

 unusual to find birds so far apart as a Finch, like the Sparrow and 

 a member of the Thrush family, like the Chat, feeding the one 

 young Cuckoo. 



The Warbler family, Sylviidac, is a large one, found all through 

 the Eastern Hemisphere. One migratory species crosses Behring 

 Strait each year to summer in Alaska. 



As no less than 79 Australian small birds have been grouped 

 in this family, it is of considerable importance to our bird lovers. 

 At the head of the family, we have an exact representative of the 

 Reed-Warbler of Europe in the delightful plain-brown songster 

 which charms all who frequent river sides. Its song is "louder 

 and more melodious than that of any of its European relations 

 except" the Reed-Warbler. It is a welcome spring visitor, and 

 can be heard on any spring or summer day in the Botanic Gar- 

 dens, or in any reed bed by stream or lake. 



The next bird is the Australian representative of the Fantail- 

 Warblers (Cisticola). These birds are related to the Tailor-Bird. 



Much has been written of the Tailor-Bird of India which so 

 cleverly sews leaves together to enclose its nest, but few know 

 we have a bird that does similar work when building its nest. 



