THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Personally, I consider him to be one of our sweetest and most melodious 
songsters. He is an exquisite mimic, the birds whose notes I have identified 
so far being the Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Rufous-breasted Whistler, Yellow-breasted 
Whistler, Grey Shrike, Thrush, and the Spine-billed, Tawny-crowned and White- 
bearded Honey-Eaters. The notes of these birds are intermingled with those 
of his own, more especially during the breeding period. This mimicry, too, 
is the best indication that nidification has commenced. The female is always 
exceedingly shy, and, almost needless to say, is a visual nonentity in the 
breeding-season. However, both sexes are habitually cautious, and while 
they are foraging in the undergrowth for some entomic morsel they are ever 
on the alert, and never neglect to ascend to some vantage-ground from whence 
they can see that no enemy is lurking round. More usually the male assumes 
this responsibility, and if 4 all’s well,’ frequently gives forth his magnificent 
song, but should an intruder be lurking round he gives a warning note, and 
both make themselves scarce the while. Sometimes the female creeps up to 
watch for any prospective enemy, and should 4 no enemy ’ be in sight utters 
a few clucks, and both resume their foraging together ; but she, too, gives a 
warning note similar to that of the male, when they both disappear into the 
thickest part of the undergrowth. In the late winter and early spring, when 
the male is in full song, he frequently ascends a small sapling to ten or fifteen 
feet to give forth his liquid notes, but never leaves the foliage, and descends 
as he arose. . . . The breeding-season commences in July and continues 
till November, or possibly later in favourable seasons, when one or more broods 
are brought forth. Odd nests may probably be found in the autumn.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby has written me : 44 1 have only met with H. pyrrhopygia 
in the 4 heath-like ’ scrub near Middle Harbour, Sydney, but H. cauia is very 
common at Karoonda, but owing to its shy habits needs looking for. If one 
is quiet it can sometimes be seen quite close to, moving rapidly from clump 
to clump of mallee almost always on the ground with tail erect. In the mallee 
near Woodchester on Sept. 10th, 1919, the cock birds began to sing with the 
first streaks of dawn ; the song is a sweet little trill, after the character of 
that of a Sericornis, the bird vocalising usually from the top of some low bush. 
At that date a nest with fresh eggs was found. I have never seen this bird 
outside the mallee country myself, but many years ago Mr. Hall, of Teatree 
Gully, found it breeding in some heathy country on the foothills of the Mount 
Lofty Range about seven miles N.E. of the City of Adelaide. I have 
collected it on Kangaroo Island.” 
This bird was first described by Vigors and Horsfield from the neighbour- 
hood of Sydney, and fifteen years later Gould proposed for it a new genus and 
at the same time added a new species from the Western Belts of the Murray, 
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