THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
case the bird I saw more than once was not a solitary male. I shot one pair 
for identification. It is a wary but not secretive species like its congener, 
A. gigantura (Milligan). The individuals I met with haunted a series of 
very stony gullies, with very little scrub, but where the spinifex was growing 
in innumerable large clumps. I was attracted by the pleasing song, which 
resembles that of a Malurus, but is fuller, more musical, and more sustained. 
I spent many hours searching for a nest, but all in vain, and latterly the 
bird or birds I was watching seemed to disappear altogether. As the two 
specimens I shot do not agree in toto with Gould’s description I send them 
for inspection.” 
Whitlock then recorded results of collecting on the East Murchison 
and gave a good account of finding the nests of this species. “ The Striated 
Grass-Wren, which I had met with in the north-west of this State, was 
destined to give me much trouble, and at the same time keen delight. I 
had very little to guide me in estimating the probable nesting time. . . . 
I resolved to shoot a pair and examine the state of their organs. ... I 
was too early. How r ever, I was on the spot, and resolved to learn as much as 
I could of the habits of the birds and, if necessary, return again at a later period. 
In the breeding season at any rate, this Grass -Wren is much easier to find 
than Amytornis gigantura. The male has rather a pleasing song, and on 
calm, sunny days he will perch at a height of 3 or 4 feet and pom’ it forth. 
He even keeps up the performance for ten minutes at a time if undisturbed, 
and in this respect he resembles a Calamanthus, another rather secretive 
bird. The common call note is a clear, liquid and musical ‘ Tu-tu-tu,’ and 
this is frequently responded to by other males (and possibly his own female) 
within earshot. These notes are incorporated in the song, and are followed 
by other more rippling notes, which again are followed by further sounds 
difficult to describe on paper. The whole effect is distinctly pleasing, and 
in the semi-desert country inhabited by these Grass -Wrens gives life to 
otherwise rather dreary surroundings. Indeed, were it not for the bird life 
on these spinifex plains, silence would absolutely prevail. During a month’s 
constant tramping I never saw a kangaroo or other marsupial. Lizards 
were not numerous, snakes I never saw at all, and with the exception of the 
usual bush flies and two or three species of beetle, insect life was not very 
apparent. The alarm note, or warning note, is faint and high-pitched, 
but when an individual is suddenly disturbed from a tussock of spinifex at 
one’s feet it dashes off — a streak of brown — with a shrill shriek, not unlike 
the effect produced by rapidly drawing one’s finger over the highest octave 
of the piano, in an upward direction. . . I had the luck to catch a young 
one. . . was much duller in colour than adults ; snuff-brown rather than 
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