OCTOBER THE WITCHING 53 



birds are given credit for powers of mimicry when 

 the notes are purely natural, only allowed out of the 

 music-box on rare occasions. Otherwise, Australia 

 must surely be replete with bird-mimics. 



The White-shouldered Lalage (save us from such 

 a mouth-filling name as Caterpillar-eater!) has a 

 good deal in common with the summer-loving Wood- 

 Swallows. It delights to follow the chariot of 

 Phoebus from one end of Australia to the other, and, 

 while it is considerably less reliable than the "Skim- 

 mers" in regard to time of arrival in the South, it 

 may fairly be ranked with them as a bird of Octo- 

 ber. How often of old, in the brightness of the 

 "bird-month," have I listened with delight to the 

 sparkling, Chaffinch-like chatter of a newly arrived 

 Lalage (i.e., prattling-voiced) , and seen the hand- 

 some male bird singing on the wing ! 



This shapely study in black-and-white, along with 

 his quietly garbed wife, usually arrives in Victoria 

 towards the end of September or early in October. 

 Sometimes they may not appear until November ; and 

 then, again, they may not appear at all. I have found 

 the same "glorious uncertainty" to prevail with the 

 species in Queensland. There the larger Pied 

 Lalage, a bird of the brushes, which has never 

 been reported as a Victorian visitor, may often be 

 seen in the cooler months ; but its little white-shoul- 

 dered relative is missing then, and only makes spas- 

 modic appearances in the Spring. Thus, in the 

 Spring of 1916, the bird of the chattering song was 

 very plentiful about Brisbane ; and in the following 

 Spring, with no apparent alteration in conditions, 

 there was not one to be seen. 



