GENUS PODARGUS (Cuvier). 



fJ^HIS is a form of night-bird which is confined to Australia and a few of the adjacent islands. 



PODARGUS STRIGOIDES. 



TA WNY -SHOULDERED PODARGUS. 



J^EW SOUTH WALES is the home of this species of Podargus, first described by Latham. 



It is a strictly nocturnal bird, spending the day in slumber, on a bough or in a hollow 

 trunk of a tree, generally in pairs. Its sleep is so sound that it may be killed with a stick, and 

 Gould even mentions that he has shot one without disturbing the mate sitting close by. If it is by 

 any means wakened, it merely flies off to another tree close by and continues its lethargy. 



Immediately after sunset it begins to look for the insects on which it feeds. It does not 

 capture them on the wing, but creeps along a branch, in which it is greatly assisted by a curious 

 power which it has of changing the position of the outer toe, to point backward instead of forward. 



Its cry consists of a loud double note. 



During- the breeding season two beautiful white eggs are laid in a fiat nest, constructed of 

 sticks, and placed on a horizontal bough of some tree, generally one of the eucalyptus tribe. The 

 male and female take it in turns to sit on the eggs. 



The upper surface is grey, spotted with dark brown ; wing-coverts, light chestnut-brown, 

 margined and tipped with white ; other wing-feathers, dark brown, margined with spots of rufous and 

 white ; tail, brown, spotted with brownish-black and greyish-white ; under surface, greyish-white, crossed 

 by irregular lines of rufous, and having a line of brown down each feather ; on each side of the 

 neck there is a series of dark brown spots ; irides, yellow ; bill, legs, and feet, brown. 



Habitat : New South Wales. 



PODA ROUS PLUM I PER US (Gould). 



PL UMED PUD AUG US. 



THIS is an inhabitant of the brushes bordering the rivers in the northern part of New South 

 Wales and the southern part of Queensland. 



