I 
THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
on his premises in its present imperfect state, and was supposed to have been 
killed by a cat. Its native name, he adds, is Wat^wathin.'''' 
Gould’s account reads : “ As the similitude of its form would lead us to 
suspect, this species closelj^^ resembles the preceding, both in its habits and 
in the whole of its economy ; unlike that species, however, whose range of 
habitat would appear to be very limited, the present bird is universally, but 
thinly, distributed over the whole of the southern portion of Australia. I 
killed it in South Australia and in New South Wales : the collection formed 
by Gilbert at Swan River contained specimens which presented no difierence 
whatever, either in size or markings, and I have since seen examples from the 
north-west coast. During my rambles in New South Wales I more than once 
flushed this bird in open day, when, after mounting rapidly in the air, it 
performed a few zig-zag evolutions and pitched again to the earth at a distant 
spot. That it breeds on the ground there can be no doubt, as I found a 
newly-hatched young one on the precise spot from which I had flushed the 
adult ; the little helpless creature, which much resembled a small mass of 
down or wool, was of a reddish-brown colour, not very dissimilar from the 
surface of the ground where it had been hatched ; my utmost endeavours to 
find the broken shell were entirely unavaihng. . . . The sexes are so nearly 
alike in colour and size that they are not to be distinguished except by 
dissection ; the young, on the contrar3^, is clothed in a more bufly-brown 
dress until it has attained the size of the adult.” 
Keartland’s notes of his experience with this species during the Calvert 
Expedition {Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Austr., Vol. XXII., p. 136, 1898) read : 
“ During the early part of our journey the peculiar note of this bird 
gave rise to a considerable amount of speculation as to its origin, 
but at Mount Campbell I not only got the required information from the 
natives, but also satisfied myseK by shooting the bird whilst uttering it. This 
note consists of a “ caw, caw, caw, gobble, gobble, gobble.” In the whole 
of the desert these birds are seen after the sunset skimming over the tops of 
the spinifex in search of insects, but camp fires possess a strong attraction 
for them in the form of mnged insects attracted by light. Whilst on watch 
on the night of August 17th, I counted ten birds flying round the burning 
spinifex at one time. Although seen far into the desert at night, they prefer 
rocky country in which to pass the day. On the hillside, near Mount Campbell, 
I disturbed fourteen birds from about half an acre of ground, and subsequently 
flushed several lots of five or six, but never saw one perch. They appear to 
spend aU. their tune on the wing or ground.” 
Howe {Emu, Vol. IX., p. 230, 1910) recorded Eurostopus argus from the 
Victorian mallee, writing : “ This nocturnal bird was noticed on two occasions. 
230 
