WHITE-FRONTED CHAT 263 
than 3 feet from the ground. Of these nest-bushes 
I may mention samphire, lignum, furze, kangaroo- 
acacia, tussock, and giant thistle. Once I found a 
nest at, Moolap, placed right on the ground in the 
grass on the steeply sloping side of a ditch. It is 
always well concealed. The eggs number usually 
three, sometimes four, and are white in ground-colour 
and spotted sparingly with red. In one variety the 
markings are nearly black. 
Greatly discussed has been this bird's habit of 
fluttering off the nest and along the ground in front 
of one, as if simulating a broken wing, and inciting to 
a pursuit which will draw the intruder away from its 
nest. Now, I don't think this is quite what is in the 
bird's mind. The habit is probably not merely fifty 
years old nor yet five hundred ; I imagine that Aus- 
tralian Chats fluttered in much the same way before 
there were even any blacks in Australia, yes, maybe 
what time the lumbering Diplodocus crashed heavily 
through the samphire swamp where now the glistening 
salt awaits the harvest. For habits like this do not 
grow in a day, and even fifty years ago these birds 
had naught to fear from man. 
Not cunning device, but semi-paralysed fear, is the 
cause of the phenomenon, in my opinion. You will 
observe the bird to flutter farther and be apparently 
more distressed the nearer her eggs are to hatching, 
and the more her maternal instinct and anxiety for her 
treasures are developed. She, sitting close, becomes 
aware of some disturbing noise. If she has sufficient 
