2 52 AUSTRALIAN AND TASMANIAN ANIMALS 



a mottled white patch on the breast and a pair of such patches, without the 



mottlings, on the throat. Very characteristic of this bird is a dark erectile crest 



surmounting the crown of the head. Starting 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 final crack, the male bird 



gradually merges its voice into the swish of the lash, ending in a loud, sharp, 



crack-like note. The volume of sound produced is so great that it may be heard a 



quarter of a mile away in the stillness of the bush. Very generally, although not 



invariably, the call of the cock is answered by the note of his partner. This is a 



double note, somewhat softer in tone and quite distinct from the call of the male, 



although quickly following, but not in any way blending with it ; so that persons 



who have not carefully watched these birds do not associate the call of the hen 



with that of the cock some distance away. Indeed confusion has arisen owing to 



some ornithologists maintaining that all the notes are the product of a single bird, 



and not the combined utterance of the two sexes. Sometimes the cock makes the 



opening " swish," and does not finish with the crack, but in such cases he is not 



answered by his mate. The note of the cock is believed to be a call to ascertain 



the whereabouts of the hen, and when the note is not completed it is because one 



of the birds has discovered the locality of the other. Sometimes the female calls 



first, in which case she is never answered by the whip-crack note of the cock. 



Coachwhip-birds, of which there are several species, are not infrequently mimicked 



by the lyre-bird. 



The wide-gaped frog-mouth (Podarqus australis) is a well- 

 Frog-mouth. ° x . a . , . 



known member of a family, Podargidce, of so-called picarian birds, of 



which the typical genus and Batrachostomus are restricted to the Australasian region 

 and some of the neighbouring islands, while AUgotheles ranges from the Malay and 

 Philippine Islands to the Himalaya and Ceylon. The group is allied to the night- 

 jars; the species named being a bird of about the size of a brown owl, with a 

 brownish mottled plumage. 



„, „ The kingfishers, Alcedinidce, include among other Australian 



Kingfishers. ° ... 



species the well-known laughing - kingfisher, or laughing -jackass 



(Dacelo gigas), a member of a small genus restricted to Australasia. This bird owes 

 its name to its remarkable notes, which recall weird laughter. The large and 

 widely distributed genus Halcyon has likewise an Australian representative, 

 while there are also species pertaining to the equally wide-spread Alcedo, 

 among which the azure lapis-lazuli kingfisher (A. aziwea) is one of the most 

 striking. The great majority of the peculiar Australasian kingfishers are, how- 

 ever, natives of New Guinea. Some years ago an Australian ornithological 

 journal published a reproduction from a photograph, showing the feeding- 

 grounds of the laughing kingfisher, cat-bird, and noisy pitta in the Coolabunia 

 pine-scrubs near Kingaroy, to the south-west of Maryborough, Queensland. 

 Near the centre of the photograph is shown a large flat stone, around which 

 is strewn an enormous mass of shells of Helix cunninghami, a large species 

 in which the shell measures more than a couple of inches in diameter. The 

 shells of these snails are broken by the birds on the boulder, and their luscious 

 contents eaten. 



