118 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



A little later on there would be, in the natural 

 course of events, disagreements among the Shrike- 

 Tits themselves, just as there are among even the 

 pure-voiced Bell-Birds for even your most con- 

 firmed aristocrat must become "human" in the 

 Springtime. On the morning of an August day a 

 solitary female Shrike-Tit worked among bushes 

 and called complacently "Kar-kar," while two fine 

 male birds disagreed severely over her. It was not 

 the usual straight-out contest. One bird seemed to 

 be already in possession. He did not lead any as- 

 saults, but devoted himself strenuously to keeping 

 off number two, who, with scant chivalry, kept 

 driving at the lady. For half an hour I kept an un- 

 biassed eye on this battle, and enjoyed it quite as 

 much as, I suspect, did the cause of the trouble. At 

 times both contestants grew vociferous, uttering 

 shrill, chattering notes never before heard by at 

 least one of the two spectators. 



There are many other notes in the music-box of 

 the Crested Shrike-Tit among them a soothing 

 little "eroodle" of a tone which a human mother 

 might adopt towards a restless infant; but over 

 and above all is that round, piercing, distinctively 

 Australian piping, a powerful, swelling note that 

 does not seem to cost either bird any effort to emit. 

 I have sometimes amused myself in imitating this 

 call, and in noting the capriciously-varied manner 

 in which individual birds received the mimicry. A 

 bird on a nest would usually peer inquiringly over 

 the rim when it heard the signal, and nearly always 

 a solitary female would respond thereto. A pair of 

 nesting Shrike-Tits which dwelt away along the 



