The male at the second nest was bolder and even more
agitated than the first, giving
tock
calls at a similar rate, but
mainly as a double note while hopping along fallen bamboo,
apparently to distract me from the nest. The less
conspicuous female behaved similarly, halting after each
progression on the forest floor until I approached to within
4–5 m, and once backtracked towards me when I did not
follow. Both birds flicked their wings at 3–5 second
intervals, usually preceded in the male by a robin-like,
grating alarm call, rendered as
tt-tt-tt-tt
by Lister (1954).
Subsequently, the male was observed dashing adroitly and
sleekly through the undergrowth, mostly along fallen canes,
and without flicking its tail or wings, very similar to the
‘running like a rat’ behaviour observed by Rippon (1901)
in Burma and Ali (1962) in Sikkim. It halted briefly on a
bamboo cane to give bursts of wing-flicking in unison with