BIRDS. 49 



of housekeeping. Unfortunately, being birds of the same clutch and the female some- 

 what a cripple in consequence of a fall in her early days, no definite results were 

 arrived at. With each returning spring, nevertheless, the nest-building instinct was 

 strongly manifested and afforded both themselves and onlookers intense amusement. 

 The male bird, more particularly, would take straws or any suitable material offered 

 him from our hands and weave them assiduously into the substance of the nest- 

 foundation provided them in the shape of a few sticks secured around the rim of a 

 shallow box lined with a little hay. Taking turn and turn about, the two birds would 

 spend several hours each day in the modelling or reconstruction of their nest and 

 subsequent occupation of it in quiet content. Their happy and philosophical contem- 

 plation of the bantam eggs experimentally introduced for artistic effects is faithfully 

 portrayed in the figure last quoted. 



The vocal notes of Podargus, briefly referred to on page 43, with reference 

 only to the one expressed as a signal of alarm, invite some further notice. The 

 cry commonly attributed to this bird and with which its popular title of the 

 "More-pork" is associated has, as already explained, no foundation in fact. In 

 addition to the characteristic alarm note the two examples in the possession of the 

 writer gave expression to several very distinct vocal utterances, each of which 

 possessed a special application. In their early youth or babyhood, their vocal powers 

 were limited to crowing and gurgling noises, much akin to those common to young 

 owls of the ordinary type. These, like the infantile expletives of homo sapiens, 

 vanished with their advancing growth. For the benefit, nevertheless, of those specially 

 interested in infantile language, avian or otherwise, we tentatively reproduce that 

 variation of their baby-phraseology which presented itself to our mind as being the 

 most articulate. Rendered as phonetically as possible in written characters the words, 

 if such they can be called, " m-mow, wow, wow, wow-wow," repeated in unvarying 

 cadence and with but rare cessation, represented that infant cry. To the Australian 

 maternal mind the interpretation of this hieroglyph will probably take the form of 

 a continued appeal for "tucker," and that interpretation will probably be correct. 



In its adult state, the most ordinary vocal sound produced by Podargus is a 

 soft soothing cooing note not unlike that of a dove, but with a different accent and 

 capable of easy phonetic reproduction by the repetition of the words, " hoo-doo, 

 hoo-doo," but with somewhat varying timbre and rapidity. These notes were always 

 produced under conditions of placid contentment and were most energetically 



expressed by the birds when waking to more vigorous life on the approach of 

 G 



