Page:The Emu volume 9.djvu/258

 inconspicuous species, and may easily be mistaken for the more common A. uropygialis, with which it often consorts. It was its harsher call notes that attracted my attention to the first pair I procured. I was not long in picking it out again at Wiluna, though I had not heard the notes for fully six years. It has a low-pitched, twittering song, which is not unpleasing, but can only be heard when the bird is at close quarters. In addition, there are certain loud and clear joyous notes, very similar to those of A. uropygalis. The harsh "Thrip-thrip" seems to be a call note or alarm note, and is uttered by the male, and responded to by the female, when building operations are in progress. According to my observations, the female does all the building, the male hanging around the nesting site and keeping an eye on things in general. The favourite situation for the nest is a medium-sized or even small narrow-leaved mulga bush, growing in company with two or three similar bushes, but often quite isolated. Where the mulga is large and growing in thickets it is useless to look for the nest, although the bird itself may be found feeding there. The nest is a pretty little structure, and has been described by Mr. A. W. Milligan. Spiders' webs and cocoons enter largely into its construction. Some nests are much more profusely lined than others. In all I have found perhaps thirty nests. By far the greater number were at a height of from 4 to 6 feet from the ground. One I found in a pine tree was at a height of fully 15 feet, and another was only a few inches from the ground in a small broad-leaved salt-bush. These were the only two nests I observed that were not built in the customary narrow-leaved mulga. I found both these latter nests on the Yalgoo goldfield. A full clutch is invariably three. The eggs are exceptionally fragile, and as a rule very well marked, chiefly at the larger end, with rust-red spots. Two handsome clutches had the markings all massed together at the apex, and another egg in a third clutch was quite white. Curiously enough, I shot a specimen of this Acanthiza nearly white, but it showed sufficient of the snuff-coloured upper tail coverts to make identity pretty certain. Compared with A. uropygialis, and other species found in the south-west of this State, I consider A. robustirostris a silent bird. It is especially quiet and wary when the young are hatched. I have often stood by a nest containing young, and waited in vain for the parents to show themselves. An easy way to find the nest is to stand within sight of the male, when he is fussing about, uttering the harsh call note, and watch for the female. Presently she may be observed flying from bush to bush, until she disappears into the topmost twigs of some solitary mulga. Ten chances to one there you will find her nest, which, from the ingenious way the narrow leaves of the mulga are woven into the sides, is by no means a conspicuous object. On the Yalgoo goldfield I obtained an egg of the Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcococcyx basalis) in a nest of this Acanthiza. The species is double-brooded, the breeding season commencing early in July and lasting till the beginning of October. If this bird lived in agricultural districts it would be a useful little friend to the farmer and orchardist, as it devours numbers of grubs and caterpillars, as I have myself witnessed.

(Acanthiza whitlocki. North).—This was one of two new species I procured on the East Murchison, and at the request of Mr. H. L. White Mr. A. J. North paid me the compliment of naming it after me. It somewhat resembles in appearance Acanthiza apicalis of our south-western coastal districts. A full description will be found in The Victorian Naturalist, vol. xxvi.. No. 5, pp. 55, 56.

The first pair I met with were in a thicket of tea-tree scrub bordering the big lagoon in Lake Violet. They were closely searching the sprays of foliage for insect life. They were very silent, and though I stood watching them for some time not a sound did they utter. I was puzzled. The only way out of the difficulty was to shoot them. This I did, securing both without serious damage. I could see I had got an Acanthiza which somewhat resembled A. apicalis, but both the markings on the throat and breast and