lyo Whitlock, Notes on North-Western Birds. [ist^A^rii 



at my presence. One bird, which I identified as the female, was 

 uttering frequent calls resembling the syllables " Tchut-tchut," 

 the notes being very guttural. She was obviously trying to lure 

 me to follow her. This I did, and soon lost her in the spinifex. 

 I returned to my post of observation and sat down. Presently 

 she reappeared with a spray of flowers in her beak. These flowers 

 I subsequently identified as Trichinium onotiim. It is a greyish- 

 green herbaceous bush growing to a height of i8 inches or 2 feet ; 

 the stems are very slender, and the flowers small but verj^ downy. 

 The female was carrying a piece about two inches long, with 

 several flower-heads on it. She disappeared into the top of a 

 large clump of spinifex, and presently came out again with her 

 beak empty. This was repeated a number of times during the 

 hour I watched. The male, in the meantime, was similarly 

 occupied, but he was not so anxious, and was quite silent. I 

 observed all these facts with the aid of a field-glass, about a chain 

 away. I was partly hidden by a small bush. I was fairly 

 justified in concluding that this pair was building, or at any rate 

 lining the nearly completed nest with vegetable down. Observa- 

 tions on other pairs revealed a similar state of affairs in progress. 

 I gave the above pair a full week before examining further, 

 keeping an eye on them at the same time. In about three days 

 the apparent building operations had ceased. After a week I 

 decided on a closer inspection. The clump of spinifex was a 

 large one, and about 4 feet 6 inches in height — a densely-matted 

 growth, and quite impenetrable to vision from any point of view. 

 Armed with a bill-hook, I cautiously commenced at the bottom 

 of the clump ; I cut away about a third of it until I was able to 

 part the stems a little with my hands. I could then — looking up 

 from below — make out the shape of a small nest, about 18 inches 

 from the top. Further opening up revealed an open, cup-shaped 

 nest, rather shallow, but with thick walls, built entirely of dried 

 grasses. It was empty. Where was the vegetable down the 

 parent birds were carrying ? I was both puzzled and much dis- 

 appointed, and, despite constant efforts of search and watching 

 of other pairs, I could not at first clear up the mystery. 



However, about a week later, by dodging from cover to cover, 

 I was able to approach another pair unseen. These birds, too, 

 were carrying sprays of Trichinium into the spinifex. I waited 

 my chance until both birds were away, and then walked over to 

 the clump into which they had been carrying flowers. I gave 

 the clump a kick, and out fluttered a young bird, which I vainly 

 attempted to catch. Both parents were soon around, and I shot 

 the female with a spray of flowers in her beak. The mystery was 

 solved. I was too late for eggs, and the flowers, or the half- 

 formed seeds they contained, were destined for feeding the young. 

 I carefully dissected the shot bird. The gizzard contained a few 

 very small black seeds, fragments of tiny beetles, and much 

 vegetable matter. Carter's Desert-Bird is, at any rate for some 

 time of the year, a vegetable feeder. I found the flower-stems 



