THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
summer visitant to this part of the country, where it arrives about the beginning 
of September, after which it is to be met with in considerable numbers among 
the mountains of the interior, but very rarely seen in the lowland districts. 
Its powers of flight are considerable, and when excited during the breeding- 
season the males become very pugnacious, and not only attack each other in 
the most desperate manner, but also assault much larger birds that mav 
approach the nest. Its usual flight is even, steady and graceful, and while 
flymg from tree to tree it gives utterance to its sweet and agreeable song, which 
at times is so like the full, swelling, shaking note of the Canary, that it might 
easily be mistaken for the song of that bird. It is a remarkably shy species, 
especially the females, which are so seldom seen that I was at first inclined to 
think they were much less numerous than the other sex, but this I afterwards 
found was not the case. Their favourite haunts are thickly wooded places 
and the most secluded spots. The nest is so diminutive that it is very difficult 
to detect it, and so shallow in form that it is quite surprising the eggs do not 
roll out when the branch is shaken by the wind. The nests I discovered were 
placed on a horizontal dead branch of a eucalyptus ; they were formed of 
grasses and contained two eggs. It breeds in the latter part of September 
and the beginning of October.’ 
“Gilbert subsequently met with the bird at Port Essington, where also 
it appears to be migratory, for not a single individual was to be seen from 
the early part of November to the month of March ; females and young birds 
were very abundant on his arrival in July, but he only met with one old male 
during his residence in the colony, a period of eight months. The stomach 
is muscular, and the food consists of insects of various lands and their larvae.” 
Mr. E. E. Howe writes me : “ This form is another visitor to Victoria, 
arriving about September, and mating commences at once. The tiny cup- 
shaped nest is placed in a thin fork and varies in height from ten to forty feet. 
Old nests testify to the fact that they visit the same spot year after year ; 
two or three eggs form a clutch and incubation lasts about fourteen days, 
both birds taking part and feeding each other on the nest. The young are 
born blind and featherless, and the eyes do not open until they are fully a 
week old ; gape of mouth is orange. Both parents help in feeding the young 
and the food is obtained from the ground. The call-note of the male is a very 
pleasant song.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby’s notes read : “ This bird is not uncommon in South 
Australia ; it nests within a few miles of my house at Happy Valley. It 
chooses a most conspicuous place for a nest, the bare fork of a wattle about 
four feet from the ground. As far as my observation goes, the male does the 
whole work of incubation and feeding the young, the latter being fed exclusively 
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