Vol. XIV, 



19' 5 



] Howe, Notes on the Genus Pycnoptihis. IQ< 



a call given by A. J. Campbell* as " Guinea-a-week " is easily 

 recognized, and is generally given by the female in answer to a 

 longer and more beautiful song, and appears to be used when 

 the birds are moving rapidly through the scrub. When the 

 female is sitting the male uses the " Guinea-a-week " call, and 

 she answers from the nest, " Whit-a whit-ee." Should the female 

 come off the nest without being called, the song then is either 

 " Guinea-a-week tui," " Guinea-a-week tui," or " Whit-a-whit-ee 

 tou," " Whit-a-whit-ee tou," the last syllable being uttered by 

 the male in both cases. Often the male will fly on to a fallen 

 dead tree and give voice ; then the head is thrown rearward, so 

 much so that it appears to be resting on the back, and the little 

 throat can be seen working even when the observer is at a fair 

 distance. The Pilot-Bird rarely calls when motionless, but 

 always when running along a log or just after perching on a fallen 

 hmb. I do not know of any bird notes that are as beautiful as 

 those of this silver-throated songster. They come with such 

 piercing sweetness, and from its volume one would think that 

 the song was uttered by a much larger bird. When the birds are 

 excited they have the power of "fanning" the tail and also of 

 raising the feathers on the crown and the nape. 



The birds are local to an extraordinary degree, and whenever 

 we located birds many old nests would be found within a radius 

 of perhaps a few hundred yards. Even when we disturbed them 

 and took the eggs they rarely moved more than 200 j^ards away. 



The breeding season extends over seven months, and eggs have 

 been seen as early as 22nd August (iqo7), and as late as loth 

 February (1907). Two, or perhaps three, broods are reared. 

 The birds act as foster-parents to the young of the Fan-tailed 

 Cuckoo, Cacomantis ftabelliformis {C . riibricatiis rubricatus), and 

 both young and eggs of this species have been seen in the nest. 

 The female alone builds the nest, which is a compact, domed 

 structure, about 6-J inches in diameter generally, but specimens 

 have been seen considerably larger, and occasionally smaller. 

 The nest is composed of large strips of bark outwardly, with a 

 finer layer of bark and finally a hning of grasses, and the bottom 

 is generally lined with feathers, most of them being the silky 

 feathers from the bird's own flanks. The sites for the nests 

 vary. Often they are built in sword-grass, in the banks of a 

 grassy wall or gutter, often under a fallen dead branch, and 

 occasionally flat on the ground without any cover whatever, and 

 never more than 2 feet above the earth. The opening of the nest 

 is in the side, rather near the top ; the nest is deep inside. At 

 the opening appears a " landing stage," sometimes as long as 

 8 or 10 inches, made of small sticks or sword-grass stems. Often 

 the outside of the nest is decorated with dead eucalyptus leaves. 

 This applies to nests built into the scrub, but when placed in 

 debris the outer covering is bark, with small dead sticks above. 



* " Nest.s and Eggs," Campbell, p. 260, 



