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Australian song-birds.



that they deny the claims of the Australian Magpie to he considered

a song-bird at all! Yet the late John Gould, the greatest bird

student of them all, could find no words in which adequately to

describe the carol of the Magpie. “ To describe the note of this

bird,” he said, “ is beyond the power of my pen.” Professor Alfred

Eussell Wallace was equally enthusiastic, and he was a man who

devoted nine or ten years of his life to the continuous study of birds

in their native haunts in the Malay Archipelago. He described

the note as “ a wonderfully modulated whistle unequalled among

European birds.” Whether we regard the blithesome Magpie as a

“ whistler,” a caroller, or as a song-bird, there can be no mistake

about its being one of the most delightful exponents of wild melody

that is to be found among the birds of the world. If there are people

who have any doubt on this point they would do well to make an

effort to hear a group of Magpies in full song in the early hours of

a spring or an autumn morning.


The writer agrees with Mr. Mathews that the little Peed-

warbler — which has wonderful range and versatility of song, together

with an exquisite quality of melody—is “ in a class by himself; ”

he also has the greatest admiration for the Golden Whistler (a bird of

superb singing powers), the Grey Thrush (which, however, pipes

rather than sings), and the clarion-throated Butcher-bird ; but he has

never heard anything in the Australian bush so fine, or so thrilling, as

a Magpie chorus about the dawn of day. It may be conceded, of

course, that in this respect the Magpies have a great advantage over

most of the other species of songsters, inasmuch as they commonly

sing in groups instead of individually. To hear the Golden Whistler

at his best one needs to visit some of the deep, heavily-timbered

valleys in the region of the Clyde Eiver, or other coastal districts,

where the birds are numerous. In such localities the early hours of

the day are made joyous to the last degree by the collective song of

the Whistlers. However, even when we have mentioned the Eeed-

warbler, the Thrush, the Whistlers, the Magpies, the Butcher-birds,

and some others, we have not nearly exhausted the list of first-rate

singing birds which are indigenous to Australia. There are the

singing Hone);-eater (Ptilotis vittata) and the Bell-bird (Oreoica

cristata), for instance. In its singing moods the Honey-eater in



