ij^s'""] Chisholm, Two Singing species of Gerygone. I<I 



reflecting on the characteristics of the bird for the determining of 

 a new generic name, the mind of the Enghsh ornithologist reverted 

 to the airy, unbodied melody of G. albogularis, and that he echoed 

 (perhaps unconsciously) the words of a greater English nature- 

 lover — " Shall I call thee bird, or but a wandering voice ? " and 

 so Gerygone* " born of a voice " ? 



I did not see much of any species of the genus when living in 

 the south — indeed, only one record of the occurrence at Mary- 

 borough (Victoria) of that delightful bird, the White-throated 

 Fly-eater, came under my notice. That was during the ex- 

 ceedingly stormy period of the early spring of 1909, when a lone 

 male bird fluttered into an upstairs room of a business establish- 

 ment, f The impression that the species was very rare in Victoria 

 was not based on my own experience, however, so much as on 

 the general silence of Victorians in regard to the bird, on Mr. 

 Robert Hall's failure to record it in areas 4 or 6 of his " Key," 

 and on Mr. A. G. Campbell's notej to the effect that his discovery 

 of a nest in the Grampians in November, 1909, was only the third 

 record of the bird's presence in the southern State. Since that 

 time, however, I have come to know that the White-throated 

 Fly-eater is not, and probably never has been, rare in certain 

 parts of Victoria. 



During January last I was on a visit to the Beechworth district 

 (North-Eastern Victoria), and there saw any number of members 

 of the pretty species in question. As a matter of fact, it was one 

 of the most numerously represented avine families of the locality, 

 and, throughout almost the whole of the daylight hours, its 

 sweet, plaintive melody — " joy and sorrow intertwined " — could 

 be heard stealing through the medley of more strident bird-voices. 

 Local residents knew the bird well under the colloquial title of 

 " Bush Canary," and many also were familiar with its nest. At 

 that particular period, however, Gerygone' s home-keeping duties 

 were over for the season, and there was naught to do but " sing 

 and be merry." The species, I am told, keeps more or less 

 closely to those North-Eastern hills the whole year through, but 

 is a good deal quieter during the winter, which is sometimes severe 

 in that locality. 



In Queensland our little friend of the yellow vest and white 

 collar appears to be more generally distributed, though it 

 probably does not at any time wander very far from the seaboard. 

 Occasionally one hears its melody in the thick scrubs (rain forests) 

 of the north coast, but the class of country chiefly favoured is 

 open forest — Eucalyptus or Melaleuca areas. There is one glade 

 outside East Brisbane where I can always be sure of hearing the 

 small melodist warbling from the tops of the paper-bark tea-trees. 

 In the spring, when the beauteous little " Blood-Birds " [Myzomela 

 sanguineolenta) are there to keep the Fly-eaters company, the 

 spot is a riot of bird-song and colour. Sometimes Gerygone 

 forsakes the tree-tops ; on one occasion I saw a pair working a 



* Ge-ryg'-o-nc. f Emu, vol. ix., p. 247. \ Emu, vol. ix., p. 164. 



