160 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



ing "black and whites" of recent birth subsequent 

 to the formation of Bass Strait? Here is an 

 interesting problem for the geographical student. 



On the other hand, there is probably no area 

 where pied birds are so prominent as they are in 

 Southern Queensland. Brisbane, in fact, might well 

 be known (in an ornithological aspect) as the City of 

 Black and White. The plenteousness of water about 

 the city and its environs, added to the somewhat 

 humid atmosphere, makes for a plentiful supply of 

 insect life, and, as a natural corollary, both the 

 Wagtail and the Peewee have become almost 

 domesticated members of the family. It is much 

 the same in other centres right along the Queens- 

 land coast. 



"Magpie-Larks often feed with our fowls," writes 

 a friend in the North, "and I was amused to note 

 that some of them have acquired from the fowls 

 the habit of scratching for food. They go round and 

 round, walking backwards, and drag their feet 

 clumsily through the dust." 



The beautiful Restless Flycatcher, which closely 

 resembles the Wagtail in appearance, but has 

 singular little ways and habits of its own, is only an 

 occasional visitor to the towns. So, too, is the 

 Lalage; but, while the "Grinder" comes only 

 singly or in pairs, the former capricious bird moves 

 in scattered companies, and may only be looked for 

 in the Spring-time. Scarcely less common are the 

 Wagtail and Peewee in the thinly-timbered forest 

 and downs country of these northern parts, where 

 the color scheme is stressed strongly by the addition 



