THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
frequently see it fluttering in the air and dart down without having made 
any noise at all. I think his last sentence also differs from my conclusion, 
viz., 4 Motion, not noise, frightens insects.’ I have tested this on manv 
insects and have found it correct. Go near any insect, especially a winged one, 
and make a noise. It is not disturbed. Pass your hand over it and it soon 
goes. The R. tricolor hops along the ground in search of food and repeats 
‘ Chick-ee, chickee,’ but this is not meant to disturb insects, it is merely a 
note, and so in the case of the present species. As a rule they are very tame, 
and one can approach very close by imitating their clear 4 Twee-’ like note. 
I have often done so, just to have a good look at the bird. Although its tail 
is not such a fanlike structure as that of R. tricolor, it can extend it a little ; 
again, this species has a flat head. Its chief food here is white ants and a small 
white moth, and now and then a butterfly. Flies are by no means scarce in 
this quarter, yet I have not seen this bird catching them. (Later, Mr. Christian 
wrote : 4 1 have just been watching one of these birds catching flies for a quarter 
of an hour, and he never once uttered his peculiar grinding notes, but after 
swallowing each fly he would give vent to two or three notes.’) Last spring 
a pair built in an apple-tree, and they were exceedingly tame, the hen 
especially so, as many times I stroked her glossy back while on the nest. 
When the young came out of the nest, for two or three days they did not 
venture out of the tree, and were fed by the parents, and were quite tame, 
as if the parents had told them not to fear, for they never once issued that 
warning note so often given by parents to young to advise them that danger 
is near.” 
Mr. Tom Carter has written me : 44 The Restless Flycatcher is a common 
bird in the south-west, and was observed at Kellerberin, but was never noted 
by me in the Gascoyne or north-west. Young birds were seen in nest at Broome 
Hill, Nov. 11, 1906.” 
Mr. J. P. Rogers, under the name Seisura nana, wrote : 44 This is rather 
rare in West Kimberley, though in Nov. -Dec. 1910 they were numerous at 
Derby ; at Point Torment and Marngle Creek they were very rare, and none 
were seen at Mungi. They are usually found on the banks of the river or large 
water-holes.” 
Hill wrote : 44 Fairly common near the Drysdale River in June, but scarce 
in other localities. The birds are extremely shy when nesting, and will desert 
a partly built nest if watched, even from a distance. One pair commenced and 
pulled down three nests successively, then laid in a fourth nest, which was almost 
overturned during a storm. When visited on Dec. 24, 1909, this nest was found 
to contain one egg. The other was afterwards found on the ground seventy 
feet below. The damaged nest was removed for the fifth time, and rebuilt in 
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