THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
quick, and they keep low down in the undergrowth.” “ Scattered throughout 
the country visited (the Musgrave and Everard Ranges), were met with in 
very dry localities. They move very rapidly over the ground in long hops, 
talcing flight every little while to a low bush and while on the wing invariably 
spread out their tail, and when they alight hop from branch very quickly 
with crest erected.” (Between the Cooper and Strzelecki Creeks.) “These 
strange birds were not plentiful and -were very shy. Generally met with in 
the dense bushes of lignum (Muchlenlechia cunninghamii) growing in dry- 
watercourses, and on flooded ground. They kept very close to cover, and 
when beaten out showed great cleverness in reaching cover again without 
giving a chance of a shot. They possess a very sweet song, and, if they think 
they are not observed, will go through all kinds of antics, hopping from one 
twig to another, hanging with head downwards, bobbing the head up and 
down, raising and lowering the crest, and all the time giving forth strange 
notes.” 
Macgiflivray has written of the typical form from Broken Hill: “Two 
Wedge-bills ( S. cristatum ) were dislodged from a bushy acacia. These birds 
usually frequent small bushy trees in the gullies or watercourses, or clumps 
which grow off the main creeks, along which they are never found. In their 
habits, situations they frequent, and mode of flying they are readily distin¬ 
guished from the Oreoica, the only other crested bird of about the same size 
in this district. In flying, the Wedge-bill, like the Babbler, makes a few 
wing strokes and then sails along on extended pinions, the flight not being 
sustained for any distance. They do not feed on the ground like the Oreoica, 
nor are they ever found in the mulga scrub. The song is loud, pleasing and 
continued ; it is often given forth while the bird is perched on the top of a low 
bush.” 
Mr. J. P. Rogers sent it from Tanami noting: “Sparingly distributed 
in low lying scrubby country.” 
Recently Whitlock has written about the birds of the Nullarbor Plain: 
“ The Wedge-bill (Sphenostoma cristatum) was far less common than the Bell- 
bird, and seldom found away from the dongas. I observed a nest at Naretha 
in a small acacia, the sitting bird being visible some distance aw r ay. A 
family party in a donga at Haig were inquisitively v r atching me eat an orange, 
as I sat during a heavy squall under the lee of a large blue-bush. A strong 
gale was blowing at the time. When on the ground under a bush, the 
Wedge-bill is not unlike a Grass Wren ( Diaphorillas ), a species I did not meet 
with during the trip.” 
Mr. Tom Carter has written: “ The Westralian Wedge-bill is given in 
your Reference List 1912 as ranging through West Australia. Its southern 
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