50 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



twilight and also during their enjoyment of a rain-bath, as described on a previous 

 page. Imitating this note, the author found it possible to establish quite a friendly 

 interchange of greetings with examples of this bird which occupied cages in various of 

 the Australian Zoological Gardens, and to whom the advent of an individual 

 sympathetically versed in Podargian language was distinctly welcome. The trans- 

 formation from listless melancholy apathy to an attitude of pleasurable excitement 

 and eager expectation was on many such occasions most conspicuous ; so much so 

 that one left them deploring the absence of power to open their prison doors and 

 let them free it seemed so like deserting companions in adversity. 



Another very distinct vocal note to which the Podargi gave utterance was 

 manifested with relation only to the near approach of other birds towards whom they 

 entertained no hostile but apparently friendly sentiments. If, for instance, their 

 comrade the Butcher-bird came near them he was always greeted with this note, 

 which was a combined quacking and chattering sound, difficult to place phonetically 

 on paper, but which may be approximately rendered by the, to the human mind, 

 inane words, " quackaty -quack, quackaty-quack." Sparrows hopping on the lawn or 

 perched on neighbouring bushes were vociferously hailed in the same language, under 

 the impression, possibly, that they were poor relations of the Butcher-bird. The most 

 remarkable incident, however, associated with this vocal note was the circumstance 

 that it constituted the greeting of welcome which was commonly accorded to my 

 wife on her first appearance in the morning, and less frequently on other occasions. 

 This form of salutation was not extended to myself or to any other personal 

 acquaintance, and the only plausible interpretation that can be attached to it is 

 that, borrowing a scriptural metaphor, these birds appraised the value of my better 

 halfs company as equal to or beyond that of many sparrows, and greeted her 

 accordingly. 



The fourth and last vocal sound, yet unreferred to, uttered by the Podargi, 

 bore relation to their mating instincts, and was of a very singular character. During 

 the nest-building season this amatory song, as it may be designated, was frequently 

 indulged in by both birds and may easily be described. It resembled simply a 

 repetition of the words "toot, toot, toot, toot," repeated with comma, or staccato, 

 intervals for a space of two or three minutes, or even more. Then suddenly, 

 as though the accumulated words had all been wound up on a spring which now 

 over-reached its utmost tension, they all ran down again with a rush, but with 

 gradually diminuendo and finally piano and pianissimo expressive force. 



