658 The Sparrow-like Birds 



are also in the habit of going through various amusing performances on the 

 ground, erecting their crests, drooping their wings and expanding their tails, 

 dancing and capering about all the time. They are all found in forests or amongst 

 trees and bushes, and although cautious and sometimes very shy, yet on some 

 occasions they seem careless of observation, and they are difficult to get rid of 

 when once their curiosity has been excited. They eat almost every sort of 

 insect and smaller reptile, and they no doubt partake also of fruit. They con- 

 struct large, cup-shaped nests in trees and lay eggs which with few exceptions 

 are spotless white or blue." The genera included within this group are Dryon- 

 astes, Garrulax, lanthocincla, Stactocichla, Grammatoptila, and Trochalopteron. 



Chinese Nightingale. One of the best-known members of the group is Tro- 

 chalopteron canorum, of China and Hainan, which is the Hoa-mey of the Chinese 

 and the so-called Chinese Nightingale of European residents. About eight and 

 one half inches in length, it is dark rufescent or deep olivaceous brown above, 

 the head and hind neck being streaked, with dark shaft lines to the feathers, 

 while the quills are sepia-brown and the tail-feathers olive-brown indistinctly 

 barred with dusky; the forehead appears scaly from the presence of black shaft 

 streaks to the feathers, while the sides of the neck, throat, and under parts are 

 tawny buff, the feathers mainly with the black shaft streaks. The bird is fairly 

 abundant in the mountains of the middle provinces of China, where it frequents 

 especially the borders of woods in small parties. It is very commonly kept in 

 captivity by the Chinese, who regard it very highly as a songster, though its 

 sonorous and varied notes are rather too loud for the full enjoyment of Europeans. 

 It becomes very tame and familiar when caged, but in a state of nature it is 

 extremely wild. It is also employed in combat by the Chinese. 



CoachwhipBird. We should not omit the Coach whip Bird (Psophodes crep- 

 itans) of Australia, which has gained for itself this curious designation on account 

 of the resemblance of the notes of the male to the sound of a whip-lash. " Start- 

 ing with a limpid, long-drawn sound closely resembling the noise produced 

 by the whirling of a whip-lash preparatory to its being swished through the air 

 to terminate in the sharp crack so well known, the male bird gradually merges 

 his voice into the swish of the lash, ending in a loud, sharp, crack-like note. 

 The volume of sound is so great that it ; can often be heard a quarter of a mile 

 away." MATTINGLEY. The call of the male is usually answered by the 

 female with a softer, two-note call, which is so different that they are not 

 usually supposed to be made by the same species. 



The Coach whip Bird, which finds its home in the dense scrubs of the mountain 

 sides in Victoria and New South Wales, is a handsome crested species about 

 ten inches in length, greenish black above and blackish below, the cheeks and 

 sides of the throat white, and the center of the breast and of the abdomen mottled 

 with white, as are the outermost tail-feathers. It builds a neat, circular nest 

 of grasses and rootlets, only a few feet from the ground, in dense scrub, and lays 

 two handsome white or greenish white eggs which are mottled and blotched 

 with brown. 



True Babblers. The true Babblers (Argya), comprising upward of twenty 



