THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
draw attention to such matters with the hope that some field naturalist will 
take up the point and fully investigate my suggestion. I might note that the 
females I have examined have appeared to be fully adult and that the ruddj^^ 
coloration would appear to be permanent, and not a seasonal phase only. 
I have figured two birds procured about the same locality showing the 
ruddy phase and the normal, and also the form from Melville Island, which is 
close to P. phalcB7ioides, but peculiarly enough no ruddy bird was obtained 
on the island, whilst specimens from Port Essington, etc., are in the British 
Museum, and the majority have a strong ruddy tendency, the only sexed bird 
being very red and a female". 
Mr. Thos. P. Austin, of Cobbora, New South Wales, has written me : “ I 
know of no bird which can hide itself better in a tree, simply by Nature’s 
protection, than this species. On several occasions I have seen a bird perched 
on a thick limb, or even on a nest, and at no very great height from the ground, 
and after looking at it for some little time, was not sure then if it was 
a Frogmouth or a broken-off dead branch. Twice when I have been in such 
doubt, I have disturbed the bird by throwing a stick, and then found there were 
two of them perched quite close together on the same branch, one I had not 
noticed until it took wing. I am of the opinion that if disturbed while nesting 
they will remove either their eggs or young. In daylight they always appear 
to be very sleepy, lazy birds, and much prefer to escape notice by imitating a 
dead branch to taking wing, but if captured they convert themselves into a 
very different object. One came into my house one night, and when handled 
it at once changed into just the very reverse to what we usually see them, 
with eyes and mouth widely opened, it was just as savage as any bird could be, 
making a grunting sort of a noise during its struggles.” 
In the Ermi, Vol. VII., p. 31, 1907, Mr. Austin had recorded : “ The only 
Frogmouth of the four which I know of in these parts. Although it is a bird 
very seldom seen here, its peculiar notes may often be heard on a still night, 
especially a little after sunset. I only once found them breeding here ; the 
nest was upon the thick bough of an apple tree. I could see one bird sitting 
on the nest, and it was not tiU I was withm a few feet of it that I detected a 
second bird, not more than a foot from the nest. I think there must be a great 
number of these birds breed here.” 
Campbell quotes Le Souef recording of the North Queensland bird: 
“ Occasionally I have noticed the female resting close to the male as he sits 
on the nest, but as a rule thej^ are on a neighbouring tree, and the report of a 
gun close by does not seem to disturb them much.” 
Bemey writes from North Queensland {Emu, Vol. VI., p. 43, 1906): “ Of the 
four Caprimulgidce that I have been able to identify this is the one I see least ; 
18 
