140 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



caring for the babies. Here, again, the puzzle of 

 coloration is deepened. If the female bird is quietly 

 colored for protective purposes, why does the male 

 assume charge of the home? Is the grey or dull 

 green coloring of the back so general a feature 

 with bright-breasted birds sufficiently neutral to 

 ensure him obscurity, or, remembering that these 

 birds are known to breed while yet in adolescent 

 plumage, was the usefulness developed before mot- 

 ley became the only wear? 



I have no personal knowledge of the length of 

 time necessary for the attainment of the male 

 Whistlers* regal colors, but am quite prepared to 

 believe that at least two years must pass ere the 

 beautiful gold and black emerges from the confus- 

 ing changes of juvenile plumage of the birds with 

 the sun-flower breasts. 



These, undoubtedly, are the beauties of the Aus- 

 tralian portion of the family. Picture a plump little 

 bird colored grey on the back, black on the head, 

 and white on the throat, with a frontal expanse of 

 rich golden-yellow separated from the throat by a 

 black band, and extending in a golden half -circlet 

 around the back of the neck; imagine these colors 

 blending harmoniously with one another and with 

 the chaste green of a young eucalypt, and you have 

 an idea of how striking a living miniature any one 

 of the male Golden-breasted Whistlers can present 

 when in full plumage. Ornithologists divide these 

 particular birds into at least five species, namely, 

 the Golden-breasted Whistler (P. gutturalis), com- 

 mon to Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria ; 

 the Black-tailed Whistler (P. melanura) of the 



