FINE FEATHERS AND FINE BIRDS 153 



locality. It was all of no avail. On the last day of 

 that month I found an empty nest, without any 

 signs of young birds having been in it. There 

 seemed an additional touch of plaintiveness in the 

 Whistlers' melody then ; they had been thwarted for 

 the third time! For another fortnight the sweet 

 voices sounded rarely in the vicinity, and then were 

 heard no more. 



It is part of the fascination attached to "mate- 

 ship" with the birds that the caprice of the little 

 creatures continually creates pleasant surprises. 

 Thus, on the morning of a blue and white day about 

 the middle of the following July, astonishment 



blended with delight when the prolonged "Wee , 



woo ," echoed again in the old locality. I had 



kept a close census on that bit of bushland through- 

 out the months, but never before had heard tho 

 Gilbert Whistlers in the district so early in the 

 Springtime as this. It was an honor to be acknow- 

 ledged. 



On almost every day of the week following I 

 visited the locality in search of the birds, but did not 

 hear them calling again until early in August. Then 

 the female, who showed no particular timidity, was 

 feeding among the leaves of the trees, while her 

 buff -throated consort, much more wary in manner, 

 kept about the litter of leaves and bark on the 

 ground. They remained constant to the same tract 

 of timber during succeeding months, but were more 

 often heard than seen ; and many hours of searching 

 failed to reveal a nest. The siren voices departed 

 with the spring, but echoed once again about the 

 favored spot in August of 1915. 



