THE BIHDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
One of the attendant parent birds, on observing us, immediately elongated 
itself and became rigid along the length of the limb, and so resembled the 
surroundings as almost to defy detection. I have always been struck with the 
similarity of the habit of the bird in so elongating and stiffening itself to that 
of some of the iguanas, which perform the same acts when observed. Can it 
be a device to escape detection inherited from a common ancestor ? . . . We 
could not help remarking the swift, straight, and prolonged flight that the 
owner of each nest made when disturbed. As these were flights made in 
the daytime it may be fairly assumed that the strong light of day does not 
materially affect their sight.” 
Whitlock, at the Pilbarra Goldfield, West Australia, recorded {Emu, Vol. 
VIII., p. 188, 1909) : “Not micommon on the upper Coongan, and several nests 
found. It appeared to me that these north-western individuals were paler and 
more uniform in plumage than those of the south-west. The nests I saw 
were generally in some isolated and stunted gum growing in the rocky and 
more secluded gullies.” 
Mr. Tom Carter has handed me the following valuable contribution : 
“ Podargus strigoides. Frogmouth. Mid-west Aboriginal name MORE- 
PORK. This species is distributed over West Australia, from the south coast 
to the North-west Cape, from my own observations, and is fairly common about 
Kellerburin, which district is about the eastern hmit of large timber in that part 
of the State. About Point Cloates and the North-west Cape, where timber is 
absent, these birds were to be found in the stunted trees growing in the gorges 
of the rugged ranges, but were not abundant. They are much more common 
in the timbered south-west and about Broome Hill. During my ten years’ 
residence at the latter district, several Frogmouths were found hanging dead 
in the sheep -netting fences of my station there, at various times. Their large 
heads had passed through the four-inch meshes of the netting apparently 
during a night flight, and the birds, being unable to extricate themselves, 
had died there. This species usually spends the day in sleeping in the 
shelter of dense foliage, such as she-oaks or a bunch of ‘ suckers,’ and the male 
and female birds (except at the breeding-season) often perch so, side by side, 
rarely very far apart. In such cases, especially when the birds are within reach 
from the ground, it is possible, by approaching very quietly, to catch one of 
them with one’s hands, as I have done occasionally. When I was in Tasmania, 
in 1909, a pair of birds were noted sitting side by side on a bare horizontal 
branch about 10 a. m., fuUy exposed to the sun, but they might have been 
previously disturbed from their original resting-place. It is also quite a common 
occurrence for these birds to sleep on the ground at the foot of a tree, or under 
the shade of a bush. I have often seen them do this about Albany. When 
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