FINE FEATHERS AND FINE BIRDS 147 



It is a predeliction for orchards that has earned 

 for the valuable bird the name of "Gardener" in 

 some parts. "Joey-joey" was another home-made 

 name which I liked better, not merely because it 

 was announced by the bird itself in the series of 

 running, tumbling notes that follow the initial whip- 

 crack, but by reason also of the affectionate way in 

 which the bush-woman who used the title tossed 

 back his melody to the joyous bird in the early 

 Spring. From the same notes, I surmise, came 

 another fraternal title of "Joy-Bird" with which 

 there is nothing out-of -place but the fact that nearly 

 every bird in the land does its little best to de- 

 serve it. 



Probably, the most widely-used title for the 

 Rufous-breasted Whistler is that of "Bush Canary," 

 though here again your average observer creates a 

 genial confusion by applying the same title to 

 various bush melodists, notably the dear little white- 

 throated Warbler. No other bird, however, could 

 well have been the subject of these lines by Arthur 

 Bayldon : 



A Bush Canary hark, oh hark! 



His raptures fill the vale, 

 Kin-spirit of the frenzied Lark 



And sobbing Nightingale. 



To a more recent poet, the reverend author of 

 those good bush verses, "Around the Boree Log," the 

 Whistler is the Wiree (wiry), a quaint little title 

 drawn from the "lilting lay" of the brilliant bird : 



"Wir-ee, Wir-ee, Itchong, Itchong" 

 Then rippled through its liquid song. 



Henry Clarence Kendall heard a similar song over 

 fifty years ago. His reference to "E-chongs" 



