

Scrub-birds 643 



THE SCRUB-BIRDS 



(Family A trichornithidce) 



Apparently quite closely related to the Lyre-birds are two curious, not to say 

 anomalous, little birds of the dense Australian scrubs or brush-wood forests, 

 known appropriately as Scrub-birds (Atrichornis}. Aside from their diminu- 

 tive size as compared with their larger relatives, being only between seven 

 and nine inches long, they differ structurally in possessing rudimentary 

 furcula, a sternum with a single very deep, instead of a slight, lateral indenta- 

 tion, and tail-feathers of normal shape and ordinary texture. They have a 

 relatively large bill and very strong legs and feet, while the wings are exceedingly 

 diminutive, and the tail long, broad, and somewhat graduated. In coloration 

 the plumage is plain, being dark chocolate or rufous brown above, barred and 

 waved with blackish. Although these birds seem to be tolerably common in 

 certain localities, and the males are not infrequently taken, it appears that the 

 females are unknown to science, and it is only within the past eight or ten years 

 that the nests and eggs have been detected. 



The larger of the two species known as the Noisy Scrub-bird (A. clamosa), 

 occurs in the western and southwestern parts of Australia, and is further dis- 

 tinguished by having the throat and breast white, with a patch of blackish on 

 the lower throat and fore neck. It frequents the dense, almost impenetrable 

 thickets of undergrowth in scattered pairs or individuals, and is so exceedingly 

 shy that one may spend days in its midst without so much as catching a glimpse 

 of it. It takes its vernacular name from its very peculiar loud note, which Mr. 

 Campbell says is "a kind of sharp whistle repeated eight or nine times rapidly, 

 with crescendo, concluding in a sharp crack that makes the woods resound." 

 The first and apparently only nest yet discovered was found by Mr. A. T. Hassell 

 near Albany, in October, 1897, and was a dome-shaped structure, placed on the 

 ground and composed of grass and rootlets with a few leaves, and lined with a 

 white, downy substance; the two eggs were reddish white with purplish brown 

 markings. 



The Rufous Scrub-bird (A. rufescens), which is separated from the other 

 by its small size and orange-rufous under parts, is found in the Richmond and 

 Clarence districts of New South Wales, where, like its relative, it occurs among 

 logs and fallen trees overgrown with weeds, vines, nettles, etc., and is exceed- 

 ingly shy. It is a great mimic as well as an accomplished ventriloquist, imitating 

 the notes of a dozen other birds until it is impossible to tell what its own notes 

 are. "I have frequently stood on a log," says Dr. Ramsay, "waiting for it to 

 show itself from among the tangled mass of vines and weeds at my feet, when, 

 all of a sudden, it would begin to squeak and imitate first one bird and then 

 another, now throwing its voice over my head, then on one side, and then ap- 

 parently from the log on which I was standing. This it will continue to do for 

 hours together, and you may remain all day without catching sight of it." The 

 nest of this bird was not found until 1898, and proved to be dome-shaped, with 



