PILOT BIRD. 
dusky ; eyes black ; feet and bill light horn ; gape yellowish. Collected in Femtree 
Gully, Victoria, on the 6th of November, 1910. 
Nest. Large dome shaped with side entrance. Composed of bark, leaves, tree-fern, and 
grass woven together, and lined with feathers. Outside dimensions 6 inches by 
5 deep ; entrance 1J. 
Eggs. Clutch, two. Ground-colour brownish, darker at the larger end, where a zone is 
formed. 20 mm. by 19. 
Breeding-season. August to February. 
Gould described this new species and genns twice over, apparently so im- 
pressed with its strangeness, but admitted: “Although I do not doubt that 
it is really an inhabitant of Australia, I have no positive evidence on this 
point. I know nothing of the habits and economy of this bird, nor what part 
of Australia it inhabits. I purchased it of Mr. Warwick, who had obtained 
it in a small collection of birds said to have been formed in the interior of 
New South Wales towards the River Murrumbidgee.” 
Mr. F. E. Howe has made a complete study of their habits, and has sent 
me from time to time full notes concerning his investigations, but he has 
recently published a corrected account of his results, so I have concluded it 
best to transcribe that account rather than pubhsh his MS. notes I have 
in hand. 
“I first met the Pilot Bird at Ferntree Gully, in the Dandenong Ranges, 
Victoria, on 18th November, 1906. My friend, Mr. J. A. Ross, had been 
fortunate enough to find a nest containing two eggs on the previous day. We 
decided to have a good look for the birds. I might here say that for the past 
eight years we have spent many week-ends studying the nesting economy of 
Pilot Birds, and have made many interesting observations. Why the species 
is called Pilot Bird I have not been able to ascertain, although I have made 
exhaustive inquiry. One observer says that, as the pilot fish is always found 
in the company of a shark, so the Pycnoptilus is always to be found where 
there are Lyre Birds (Menura). Certain it is that, wherever I met the Pilot 
Bird, the Lyre Bird, though seldom seen, was always to be heard. The Pilot 
Bird is terrestrial in habit, and only on one or two occasions have we observed 
it at any height from the ground. When we were examining a nest once the 
birds came, and, flying and climbing into an acacia, reached a height of perhaps 
12 feet. Sometimes I have seen them fly from the ground 5 or 6 feet into 
the air after moths. The Pycnoptilus is found only in the dense and humid 
scrubs of secluded gullies, particularly country covered with huge sword grass 
( Lepidosperma ) and wire grasses ( Ehrharta ). It is also partial to large tracts 
of hop ( Goodenia ovata ) and bracken fern, but these scrubs must be covered 
with a larger and taller growth of eucalyptus, or hazel and musk. The bird 
221 
