THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
great abundance of the birds may have been only apparent, the birds really 
having been driven nearer the coast by the destruction of their usual haunts.” 
Hill himself a little latter, recorded : “ Very common throughout the 
Otways, but more so at some times than others. Very shy, and not often 
seen, though its peculiar and distinctive note is continually in evidence. 
I never but once saw one on the wing, when it flew across a little gully with 
a heavy, lumbering flight. Very active on the ground.” 
Belcher published an account in the Geelong Naturalist for March, 
1906, and in his Birds of Geelong in 1914, as follows : “So far as Victoria 
is concerned, the Rufous Bristle Bird is confined to the western side of 
Port Phillip Bay, and in that respect is one instance of many which prove 
the Bay to be a real and definite natural boundary, the effects of which is 
to enable us to study the effects of isolation in several species. 
“ The Bristle Bird’s present eastern limit is a patch of scrub about two 
miles south-west of Torquay. 
“ Hear the eastern extremity of its range it hardly leaves the sea coast. 
It lives almost entirely on the ground, over which it runs with great swift- 
ness, its tail raised above the horizontal and slightly outspread. It is one 
of the hardest birds to get a sight of. The call consists of three or four 
pairs of notes, uttered with a rising inflection and in quick succession and 
concluding with a note which suggests the ‘ crack ’ of the Coachwhip Bird ; 
double, however, where the Coachwhip’s is single, the second part not being 
accented. Immediately, the bird is answered by its mate, who utters 
what sounds like an echo of the last three notes of the first bird. There is 
also a single note, less frequently heard. Bristle Birds call all through the 
months from October to March inclusive. In the breeding season the series 
of notes is produced about every five minutes.” 
A. G. Campbell has recorded observations from which I quote : “In 
parts matted with sword-grass, they were more often heard than seen, but 
in one or two more open places the birds, especially when nesting, could be 
attracted about one’s feet by making a squeaking noise. One pair which 
had a large young one running about them were quite pugnacious. The 
male, with spread wings and tail, approached to within three feet. The food 
in the stomach of one bird examined, consisted of about three parts of 
comminuted brown chafer beetles and one part cranberry fruits. A bird 
was noticed out on the beach sand in search of these beetles which were very 
plentiful, but the cranberry bushes were only found in the higher land to 
the rear. The birds also eat earth grubs, for which they search after the 
manner of Geocichla , running along a few feet and then standing quite still, 
moving on again in a few seconds or digging out an insect with a probe or 
160 
