THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Mr. F. E. Howe, are considerably smaller than those of Podargus strigoides. 
In both the nests I examined green twigs of the turpentine shrub had been 
incorporated in the structure, which was otherwise made of dry twigs of the 
Mallee Eucalypt. The nest is the same shape and about the same size as that 
of Podargus strigoides, and is placed on a horizontal fork.” 
Chandler, in Vol. XIII., p. 37, 1913, gave a plate of the nests and eggs of 
Podargus rossi on the Kow Plains, writing : “ Except when a nest was located 
this bird was rarely seen.” 
The South Australian form is referable to this Mallee small subspecies, and 
Captain S. A. White has written me ; “A few of these birds were met with in 
the Flinders Ranges, but they were not numerous. One was found nesting 
in a Myall tree in the centre of the Ranges, and on flushing the bird from the 
nest two eggs were found slightly incubated. The sitting bird proved to 
be a male.” 
Mr. J. W. MeUor has forwarded me the following account : “ This bird was 
once fairly plentiful at the Reedbeds near Adelaide, but owing to the advance 
of civilisation it was killed out or driven away, but now, owing to strict 
protection, a few come about in our paddocks, and they are increasing, 
their peculiar mournful cooing note being often heard at night, as the bird 
sits motionless in some dead gumtree and emits the sound ‘ Coo-coo-coo-coo,’ 
several times repeated. This sound is made during the mating- and breeding- 
season, which is from August to November, but a late clutch may be found as 
late as December. The nest is a sparsely made structure of cobwebs and fine 
fibres, loosely interwoven between a fork of a tree that lies in a horizontal 
position, the bird thus being able to sit on the nest with its tail lying along 
the bough and its head projecting between the fork of the bough, from 
which place it can watch everything below ; it lies very flat on the nest, and the 
head, with the bristles about the bill, makes the bird look like a piece of broken 
dry wood, and the colour of the feathers being greyish-brown with longitudinal 
markings, the protective coloration is complete, so that neither enemies from 
above nor those below can easily detect the Frogmouth on its nest, and in this 
position it lies as still as though lifeless and will only fly off when you climb 
close to the nest ; the eggs are two in number, of a somewhat oval shape, and 
owing to the very flat shape of the nest would easily get knocked off this frail 
platform were it not for the quiet and careful disposition of the bird. The 
young when hatched are balls of whitish down, for some time until the 
feathers start to arrive, and then the down seems to grow on the ends 
of them, and eventually disappears altogether. The feathers of the old birds 
are exceedingly soft and silky, allowing the birds to go through the air with 
noiseless flight ; it can thus capture its food with ease, opening its huge wide 
16 
