130 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



when I watched a pair of Shrike-Robins in a tea-tree 

 gully near Brisbane. The flitting forms of the birds 

 could hardly be seen in the half-darkness, but when 

 they clung to trees the golden rump could be dis- 

 cerned with a strange clearness. It seemed, indeed, 

 to impart a certain glow, not unlike the phosphores- 

 cent "light" which skirts the mouths of young birds 

 born in- dark places. And so I assume that patch 

 of gold to be not so much a danger signal as one of 

 Nature's beacons, an attribute unnecessary to birds 

 which live in the sun. 



The observations that have been made with re- 

 gard to the friendly Yellow Robin of the South apply 

 in the main also to its prettier relative of the North. 

 The nests and general housekeeping arrangements 

 are alike the male feeds the female on the nest-* 

 and there is the same questioning flick of the tail, 

 tilt of the wings, and sharp "Clip, clip" of the wings 

 when the bird is making a flying inspection of a 

 newcomer. Here again, too, you get those neigh- 

 borly, sociable ways, even though the habitat of the 

 bird makes it rather more of a recluse than the 

 better-known Robin of the South. 



The first occasion on which I met the Yellow- 

 tailed Robin is remembered well because of a 

 clever flanking movement on the part of the bird. 

 Leaning against a large tea-tree, I lost sight of my 

 new-made acquaintance as it described a semi-circle, 

 and turned soon to find a pair of round eyes, bright 

 with inquiry, making a close examination from a 

 few yards to the rear! 



Mark, too, the almost startling experience of a 

 young settler residing on a mountain in south- 



