The Coach - Whip Bird.



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bark split off. Between the bark and the tree these creatures

were collected in hundreds, and I brought some of the pine

needles and bark away to keep them alive in. An old doctor

■once told me that wood-lice contained iron, and years ago used

to be put into medicines for human beings. There must be some

special virtue in them, as this is the second Crane I have saved

by giving plenty just in time.


It was touching to see this dear bird trying to crawl after

me, but too weak to go above a few yards. Now, I am glad to be

able to say, he can once more flap his wings and preen his

feathers and walk up in his stately way to meet me at the garden

gate.



THE COACH-WHIP BIRD.


By Reginald Phillipps.


During the last few months, references to the Coach-whip

Bird (.Psophodes crepitans ) which is now at the Zoological Gardens

have appeared in various papers, all more or less inferring, some

positively stating, that it is the first living example of the species

that has reached this country. But such is not the case, for Mr.

Carrick had brought over a male six years previously, which

passed into my hands (per Mr. Hamlyn) on the day following its

arrival—on the 27th of May, 1902.


Judging by my specimen, the male, although it cannot

•stand undue exposure to cold, is a good liver, and is, by nature

and habits, well adapted to aviary life, at any rate during the

warmer months of the year. In a cage, it is thrown away and

quite out of place. According to my own experiences of the

two species, it is a far better liver than the Pied Grallina (Magpie

Lark), and yet, when I visited the Gardens this last summer, I

found the latter in an aviary and the former mewed up in a cage

in the hot New Birds’ House. No wonder that the unhappj'

creature has never (so it is stated) been heard to utter its call !


The male Coach-whip Bird is a man of affairs, and passes

much of his time bustling about among the trees, or “digging

away” (to quote from my notes) on the ground in search of

insect life, &c., very much to the benefit of his health and spirits.



