THE SPIRIT OF AUSTRALIA 167 



Before long, down came the bird and the photo was 

 taken!" 



An interesting recital this noteworthy not only 

 for its testimony to the courage of various pied 

 birds, but for the record of the Butcher-Bird's 

 quaint antipathy to a dog with the same color mark- 

 ings as itself, and, moreover, for the illustration of 

 the resourceful shrewdness of the enthusiastic 

 photographer of wild birds. 



Apparently the female Butcher-Bird is not so 

 bellicose as her lord, but quite approves of his war- 

 like attitude. At Roma (south-west Queensland) I 

 saw a fine male Black-throat furiously attacking his 

 reflection in a window in the heart of the town, what 

 time his mate sat by and supplied a little cheering 

 music. Unprotected glass would never have with- 

 stood the hammering of such a strong beak. 



The joining of forces by the Magpie-Lark and 

 Wagtail, as mentioned by Mr. Harvey, is not at all 

 uncommon; nor is the practice exactly unique. In 

 the far north of Queensland pioneering ornitholo- 

 gists find the nest of the remarkable Manucode, or 

 Trumpet-Bird, consistently in proximity to that of 

 the robust Black Butcher-Bird, the distance between 

 the sites usually being about fifty yards. In this 

 case, however, it would seem that the arrangement 

 is not mutual, but that the shining "Bird of the 

 Gods" deliberately seeks the neutral protection 

 afforded by the war-like Butcher-Bird, without 

 rendering any service in return. Further, a Manu- 

 code has been seen to drive away its "guardian" 

 when the latter wandered too close to the aerial 

 home of the greenish-black bird. 



