THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Snake ; but this circumstance we have reason to suppose is not peculiar to 
this species, as we find it recorded of other birds.” “Called ‘ Bana-will-will ’ ; 
said to feed on flies and insects,” as to the last named. 
Caley’s notes read : “ This bird is called by the colonists Dishwasher. It 
is very curious in its actions. In alighting on a stump of a tree it makes several 
semicircular motions, spreading out its tail at the time, and making a loud noise, 
somewhat like that caused by a razor-grinder when at work. I have seen it 
frequently alight on the ridge of my house, and perform the same evolutions. 
I have often considered it, when I witnessed these manners, to be the Wagtail 
of the colony. The stumps of trees on which it alights are those which have been 
left standing, where the ground has been cleared ; the trees themselves having 
been cut down about a yard from the ground.” 
Gould added : “I observed it in every part I visited, both among the 
brushes as well as in the more open portions of the country, in all of 
which it is apparently a stationary species. It is a bird possessing many 
peculiar and very singular habits. It not only captures its prey after the usual 
manner of the other Flycatchers, but it frequently sallies forth into the 
open glades of the forest and the cleared lands, and procures it by poising itself 
in the air with a remarkably quick motion of the wings, precisely after the 
manner of the English Kestrel, every now and then making sudden perpen- 
dicular descents to the ground to capture any insect that may attract its 
notice. It is while performing these singular movements that it produces the 
remarkable sound which has procured for it from the colonists of New South 
Wales the appellation of the ‘ Grinder. ’ ” 
Gilbert’s notes from Western Australia follow : “ This bird is found in pairs 
in every variety of situation. Its general note is a loud harsh cry several times 
repeated ; it also utters a loud clear whistle ; but its most singular note is that 
from which it has obtained its colonial name, and which is only emitted while 
the bird is in a hovering position at a few feet above the ground ; this noise so 
exactly resembles a grinder at work that a person unaware of its being produced 
by a bird might easily be misled. Its mode of flight is one of the most graceful 
and easy imaginable ; it rarely mounts high in flying from tree to tree, but 
moves horizontally, with its tail but little spread, and with a very slight motion 
of the wings. It is during this kind of flight that it utters the harsh cry above 
mentioned, the grinding note being only emitted during the graceful hovering 
motion, the object of which appears to be to attract the notice of the insects 
beneath, for it invariably terminates in the bird descending to the ground, 
picking up something, flying into a tree close by, and uttering its shrill and 
distinct whistle.” 
Mr. T. P. Austin has written me that : “ The Restless Flycatcher is fairly 
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