THE BIRDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
pretty sight to watch a pair of these birds wading in a shallow pool or walking 
round the damp grassy edge, now and again crying plaintively ' Pee-wit, 
Pee- wit, Pee-wit.’ Other times if disturbed it calls 4 Pree, Pree, Free,’ this 
call is often a very shrill one. They also eat many worms and gnats and 
after a rain can often be seen walking about eating worms which have come 
out. They are fairly tame, and when land is being ploughed up they will follow 
and eat up the worms as they are turned up. One can get fairly close to them, 
but I noticed when it was terribly dry that they left the timber and resorted 
to the open plain and then one could not get near them at all, even in the 
timber, they were so very shy. This seemed strange as in this country when 
a drought is on the native birds make up readily to man and will come even 
into his house for water and to escape the heat. When the rain comes, 
however, the Gralhna became quite tame again. There is a huge red Eucalyp- 
tus not far from here in a paddock through which the creek flows which 
contains many nests. I could count at least fifty.” 
Mr. Tom Carter has sent me a good account : “ North-west Aboriginal 
name Chillin-berin. The Magpie-Lark is commonly distributed through the 
North-west and Mid- west of West Australia where the combination of fresh 
water and mud occur together. No birds were observed on the North-west 
Cape peninsula, because the only two permanent pools there, Yardie and 
Quailing (the latter on the Exmouth Gulf) are in rocky ground. There were 
always several pairs on the Cardabia Creek (60 miles S.E. of Point Cloates) 
when there was water there. They were numerous all along the main river 
beds in that district, viz., the Lyndon, Minilya, Gascoyne and Lyons, the last 
being a large tributary of the Gascoyne. The nests, as a rule, are built in the 
prevailing white gum trees that fringe all the water courses. They are usually 
at a good elevation, and mostly, but not always, on horizontal limbs, and so, 
owing to the very treacherous brittle texture of that timber, are difficult and 
dangerous to approach. Green, i.e., growing limbs, are chosen more often 
than dead limbs as nesting sites, and the nests, though frequently built so as 
to be projecting clear of foliage above them, seem to be as frequently built 
in the body of the tree with plenty of leaves above. The nests are made of 
mud, shaped like a somewhat deep bowl, and have finings of feathers, usually 
mingled with some grass. Clutch three to five, the latter number being often 
seen. Main breeding months August and September, but the birds also breed 
after summer rains, several nests with eggs being found on February 5, 1902, 
after rain. The birds have a peculiar ringing metallic sort of double note, 
repeated twice. The aboriginal name is probably meant to be an imitation 
of it. When the young are fledged, they accompany the parents a 
long time. 
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