THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
secured the Pittas in Queensland, the Lyre Birds in Victoria, as also 
Psophodes crepitans in the latter State, but the securing of specimens of such 
birds is simple as compared with getting the Black-throated Coachwhip-Bird. 
As might be expected, the bird is a ground runner, and the difficulty in 
seeing it is due to such fact, and the additional one that it never leaves the 
knee-high dwarf scrubs. These scrubs are so thick and strong that in many 
places I could stand on their even upper surfaces without sinking. The ruse 
I eventually determined to adopt in securing the bird was, after having located 
its probable whereabouts (a most difficult task) to fire the cylinder barrel of 
my gun into the particular place and thus endeavour to cause it to take wing ; 
pursuing such plan, and having located the whereabouts of the bird and fired 
without flushing it, before I had time to feel disappointment at the failure of 
y ^ ^ the bird ra>n across tlie corner of a small patch of burnt scrub, and 
snapshooting with my choke barrel, and aided with the best of luck, I stopped 
my prize. The locating of the bird’s whereabouts is a most difficult task, 
for he is a perfect ventriloquist. Whilst in pursuit of him I have approached 
stealthily to a place from where his notes appeared to come in the first place — 
I would then have to await the prolonged repetition of his call. The first notes 
would appear to come as if the bird were 300 yards away — degree by degree 
they would come nearer until within a few yards. Suddenly they would appear 
to the right as if the bird had changed its position — then to the left, and next 
moment behind me, and usually by the time the call was finished I located 
the bird (rightly or wrongly) where I first imagined it to be. On my second 
visit a second specimen was secured after a long chase, but on this occasion 
there were four persons in pursuit instead of one, and the bird showed less 
shyness — due, I think, to the immediate presence of its nest or young. 
Subsequently we found near the locality a vacated grass nest close to the 
ground, and on examining the lining-feathers we found several feathers resem- 
bling in colour and shape those of the bird we had shot.” 
Since Milligan’s success, although the species has been looked for by more 
than one clever ornithologist, no one has seen or heard another bird, and it 
is now regarded as verging on extinction, if not absolutely extinct. As how- 
ever the Night Parrot ( Geopsittacus occidentalis ) has been recently recorded, 
after we had given up hope, it may be that this species still persists. As to its 
systematic history it is as brief as the knowledge of its life history. Apparently 
Gould’s specimens came from the neighbourhood of the Wongan Hills, while 
Milligan’s search was made at the Margaret River and it is from this locality 
(Bunbury) that eggs have been described. 
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