38 Chisholm, Three Species of the PachycephalincB. \^J^^ 



July 



takes his turn at brooding, and is also attentive to the young. 

 Three is tlie greatest number I have found in a brood. Nesting 

 probably extends well into January. On 3rd January, 1914, 

 I found a nest, containing three young birds, situate at a height 

 of about 20 feet in a pine-tree {Pinus insignis) in a Maryborough 

 public park. 



P. gutturalis. — The opinion is held by some that the Yellow- 

 breasted Whistler's notes are more melodious than those of the 

 Rufous-breasted species. One can disagree entirely with this 

 contention, and yet admire P. gutturalis as a sweet- voiced bird. 

 What its strain lacks is continuity. On Tambourine Mountain 

 (South Queensland) last spring (1915), however, a settler called 

 our attention to the finely-sustained song of a Yellow- breasted 

 Whistler. " Is not that just like the opening notes of a gavotte ? " 

 he remarked. 



This species was fairly numerous about the mountain scrubs, 

 but not nearly so plentiful as the species is in the Mallacoota Inlet 

 scrubs. Members of the R.A.O.U. party of 1914 found the 

 Yellow-breasted Whistler exceedingly common about the Inlet. 

 The surrounding bush rang with their voices. Several nests were 

 found, mostly placed in the tea-tree. 



These bright-plumaged birds nested in the Maryborough (Vic.) 

 district, but I saw very little of them in the spring. It was 

 during the cooler months that the birds were most to be observed, 

 and then they made an even more engrossing study than at the 

 nest. The sexes seem always to separate at the end of summer. 

 Time after time I have watched solitary males and females 

 respectively, but only on one occasion (9th May, 1915) have I 

 seen a mated pair between the end of March and the beginning 

 of September. Each bird spends its time chiefly in working 

 among the leaf-insects of the eucalypts. An indication of its 

 presence (and of the value of the work) is given by the constant 

 "Crack-crack" in the trees it frequents. In this the bird 

 resembles the Yellow-bellied Shrike-Tit {Falcuncukis frontatus), 

 as the male does also in plumage. On one occasion I saw a male 

 F. frontatus and a male P. gutturalis working almost side by side. 

 They made a striking picture. By reason of his coloration, the 

 male Whistler is easier to locate than the female. In my ex- 

 perience, however, he is more of a wanderer. During the cool 

 months of the past few years I frequently met this handsome 

 bird, but always by chance ; whereas there were at least four 

 gullies around Maryborough where I could depend on finding a 

 female — one to each area. That is to say, the bird was constant 

 to the one spot, but the " finding" was a different matter. 



A creature of curious impulses, the female sometimes remains 

 quiet for hours at a time, and on other occasions becomes 

 melodious. I first began to pay close attention to these birds 

 in April, 1914. On the 14th, one emitted its rich, spasmodic calls 

 " Whee ! wee-wee ! " and then came down and " Charr-charred " 

 at me so much in the manner of a chiding Yellow- breasted Shrike- 



