THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
the bird leaves the nest it runs along the ground rapidly, as its long legs will 
easily show, and the coloration of the back harmonises perfectly with the 
surroundings.” 
Batey, in his account of the bird-life of Victoria in the “fifties,” wrote of 
the Striated Field- Wren : “ This natty bird, with greenish-tinted plumage, 
cocked tail, shy habits, and most agreeable warbling voice, has ever been a 
permanent. Found of old on part of run called ‘ Brock’s Bottom,’ where 
there were some loose rocks with a few bushes. Apparently it has increased, 
for now we find it about stone walls, in which it takes refuge when alarmed. 
Never under any circumstances has it been seen close to watercourses.” 
Legge has provided an excellent account which deserves reproduction, 
as it deals with a matter previously little discussed yet which is of importance 
in the life economy of birds : “ This sprightly bird is the earliest harbinger 
of spring in our hill district, and though it breeds with us in August, it is still 
earlier along the coast (Tasmania). Its little song, which is heard especially 
in the evening while winter is yet upon us, makes one look upon it as the 
‘harbinger’ of the joyous time when the denizens of ‘field and forest’ are 
busy mating and nesting. There is no bird in this island which has such home- 
like notes as those which this little frequenter of rushes, saggs ( Xerotes 
longifolia) and patchy undergrowth of the open, pours forth in the chilly month 
of August as it perches on the topmost twig of a leafless briar, the post of a 
fence, or any prominent branch of broom or gorse from which it desires to 
captivate its quiet-plumaged little mate. In so doing it suddenly emerges 
from vegetation near the ground, its normal resort, and, mounting as high 
in the scrub as it can get, begins at once its sweet little warble, which recalls 
in some of its clear though gentle notes the voice of the Lark and also the 
Yellow-Hammer of our English fields. It is fond of thus calling to its mate 
just before sunset when the breeding instinct first pervades it ; but later on, 
in September, it may be heard during the morning and afternoon trilling its 
nuptial song to its partner as she sits on her w T ell-concealed nest. In regard 
to the alteration of habits consequent on the colonisation of the country, the 
case of the Galamanthus is perhaps more interesting than that of any other bird. 
In primeval days this ‘ Wren ’ affected only the natural tussocky vegetation 
and patchy, ferny undergrowth typical of what we call ‘ open bush.’ Much 
of this has disappeared through cultivation, burning off, and clearing, but 
in some soils saggy growth is still provokingly persistent, though in modera- 
tion it has its merits in shelter for lambs in the spring. Where this favourite 
cover is removed the little Field-Wren has taken to that provided by introduced 
growth such as hedges of gorse, briar, broom, the thick rushy vegetation which 
establishes itself on the margins of ditches or along old fences. More interesting 
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