EXCHANGE 
 
 BIOLOGY 
 
 RA 
 
 G 
 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
 NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 SOME USEFUL 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 WALTER W. FROGGATT, F.L.S., F.E.S., 
 
 Government Entomologist; President Royal Zoological Society, N.S.W.; Vice-pres. Wild 
 
 Life Preservation Society; Vice-pres. Gould League of Bird Lovers; Vice-pres. 
 
 Field Naturalists' Society, N.S.W; Pres. Wattle Day League. 
 
 PRICE: 10s. 6d. 
 
 SYDNEY: WILLIAM APPLEGATE GULLICK, GOVERNMENT PRINTER. 
 
 1921. 
 

 \ \ 
 
 BIOLOGY 
 RA 
 G 
 
 EXCHANGE 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION PAG1 
 
 Bird Protection in Australia .. 
 
 History of Protection in other Countries 9 
 
 Sanctuaries 10 
 
 The Migration of Birds 12 
 
 Effect of Changing Environments on Habits 
 
 Introductjon of Foreign Animals and Birds 
 
 SECTION I BIRDS OF THE GARDEN, ORCHARD AND FIELD 20 
 
 ,1 II BIRDS OF THE FORESTS AND BRUSHES ... 39 
 
 III BIRDS OF INLAND PLAINS, SWAMPS, OPEN FORESTS, AND SCRUBS. 59- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, of January, 1896, the 
 late Mr. A. J. North, Ornithologist to the Australian Museum, commenced a 
 series of papers under the title of " A List of the Insectivorous Birds of 
 New South Wales," which appeared at irregular intervals in 1896, 1897, 
 1900, 1901, 1902, and 1905. The list comprised brief descriptions of 160 
 birds, and was illustrated with a number of lithographic plates in colours. 
 Three parts were afterwards issued separately, but such was the demand 
 that the supply was soon exhausted. So many inquiries were made concern- 
 ing the articles that it was decided to issue a second series. The editor at 
 that time of the Agricultural Gazette, Mr. J. E. O'Grady, undertook the work of 
 the letterpress and the plates were copied from the figures in Gould's great 
 folio work " Handbook of the Birds of Australia" and reproduced by the 
 three-colour process. This series commenced in the April number of the 
 Gazette, 1910. In 1912 Mr. O'Grady severed his connection with the 
 Department of Agriculture, and I was asked to supply the letterpress and 
 supervise the preparation of the plates of this second series. October, 1915, 
 saw the conclusion of the series, designed at that period for republishing in 
 the form of a bulletin. The conditions affecting the output of all publications 
 during the war period has deferred their reappearance until now. 
 
 To make the work uniform I have added a chapter on bird protection 
 and allied questions, and have rewritten the letterpress contributed in the 
 first place by Mr. O'Grady. The plates for the present work were printed 
 at the same time as those for the Agricultural Gazette some years ago, and 
 the names (popular and specific) were worked at the same time. T t has been 
 deemed advisable in the letterpress, however, to adopt in some cases a later 
 nomenclature. 
 
 The popular and scientific name of each species, and the page reference 
 ;to Gould's "Handbook of the Birds of Australia" (a standard authority) 
 has been given ; and for the field naturalist, for whom this book has been 
 chiefly prepared, a reference to Leach's " Bird Book " has also been added. 
 Among the works consulted in the compilation of this book, the following 
 may be mentioned in particular : " Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds " 
 {A. J. Campbell), vols. 1-11, 1901; "The Useful Birds of Southern 
 Australia" (Robert Hall), 1907; "Key to the Birds of Australia and 
 Tasmania" (Robert Hall), 1899; ''Wanderings of a Bush Naturalist" 
 {J. Wheelright), 1861 : "Handbook of the Birds of Australia" (J. Gould), 
 vol. 1-11, 1865; "Voyage to New South Wales" (John White), 1790, in 
 which a number of plates of birds are given with brief descriptions ; " Birds 
 of New Holland" (John Lewin), 1822, in which hand-coloured plates of 
 many of our birds are given ; " An Australian Bird Book " (Dr. J. A Leach, 
 1911), a pocket-book for field use ; " Nests and Eggs of Birds found Breeding 
 in Australia and Tasmania" (A. J. North), 1889, catalogue No. 12, Aus- 
 tralian Museum. 
 
 W. W. F. 
 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
 
 NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 Some Useful Australian Birds. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE birds and animals of Australia won my affection in earliest boyhood, 
 and the matter of their protection, for both economic and less material 
 reasons, has appealed to me ever since. Like all biid and animal lovers, I 
 look forward to the day when we may see the existing Acts simplified and 
 their application enforced by some recognised authority, but that the issue 
 must depend finally upon the popular attitude to the subject seems to be 
 obvious. Unless the people themselves are awakened to the beauty and 
 value of our fauna, no Act. however perfect, can be of much use. 
 
 The protection of our native fauna must start from an economic basis, not 
 a sentimental one. First, show the man on the land the economic value of 
 the bird or beast ; demonstrate that they work for him by devouring 
 destructive insects, or have a value as game, and he will not allow their 
 wanton destruction, and you will need neither policeman nor warden to 
 enforce the clauses of the act. Then let the teacher come along and show our 
 rising generation the beauiy of form and colour, and the place in the woods 
 and fields of each living creature. He will soon awaken a sympathy with 
 the sentimental aspect of the question. Then our birds and beasts will be 
 protected simply because they are birds and beasts, doing no harm but 
 adding to the beauty and cheerfulness of the surroundings. 
 
 Even now, we less often see strings of birds' eggs, collected by a mis- 
 guided student of nature, festooning the master's study, or though the 
 factor of changing fashion must qualify our optimism the ladies adorning 
 their hats with the more or less grotesquely-stuffed skins or heads of birds 
 that have been unfortunate enough when alive to be good looking. If the 
 fashionable lady with heron plumes in her hat thought of the nestlings left 
 to starve to death because their poor mother had some fine feathers on her 
 head, would she wear them for a single day 1 There are many side issues in 
 a matter of this kind (some of which I have tried to point out in these notes) 
 which are not taken into consideration by many people. 
 
 To protect our animals and birds in a practical manner, from both a 
 scientific arid an economic point of view, we must know something about 
 the habits of the creatures we are protecting, so that we do not include 
 any species that the man on the land can prove to be injurious. We would 
 do well to look round and see what is happening in other parts of the world. 
 Though many countries have had game laws in force for hundreds of years, 
 
SEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 with very drastic punishments to be meted out to the man who transgressed, 
 it is only within quite modern times that such a thing as protecting birds 
 and animals has been considered in any other manner. The first acts to 
 come into force have always been game laws not to protect the birds for their 
 beauty or use to the community, but to enable them to breed and increase in 
 order to furnish sport to hunters. Later on, game laws were modified on a 
 more honest plan to protect the animals and birds with a " close season," so 
 that they could breed without being molested, their cash value as game having 
 been recognised. Next came the practical observer, who pointed out that 
 the birds that fed upon insects that destroyed plants, pasturage, and crops 
 must also have a cash value to the man who made his living on the land. 
 Then we had the first bird protection acts for the preservation of insecti- 
 vorous birds. 
 
 Bird Protection in Australia. 
 
 It was a very long time, however, before the many Australian Game Acts 
 were framed to include anything but game birds, which were protected by a 
 close season during the time they were nesting. The value or beauty of 
 insectivorous or harmless birds was not considered; the acts were simply game 
 acts. 
 
 One of the forerunners of legal protection for harmless and useful birds 
 was the publication by the Department of Education in Victoria of a " Chart 
 of the Insectivorous Birds of Victoria." This gave coloured representations 
 of a number of the best known useful birds, and was hung in all the country 
 schools about thirty years ago. In his " Report upon Insect and Fungus 
 Pests in Queensland," in 1889, Tryon published some interestiog notes on the 
 value of insectivorous birds, and gave a list of those found in the Toowoomba 
 district. Later, French added plates and popular descriptions of insectivorous 
 birds to his "Handbook of the Injurious Insects of Victoria." 
 
 In the Victorian Bird Protection Act of 1890, in addition to the close 
 season for game birds, fifty groups of insectivorous birds were scheduled, 
 including a number of introduced species that were to be protected all the 
 year round. Some of these introduced species are now looked upon as pests. 
 Since then, all the Australian States have made additions to their old acts, 
 or brought out more modern ones, and sanctuaries have been created in lakes, 
 swamps, estuaries, and forest areas. Many private landowners are now pro- 
 tecting the wild life on their estates. In 1901, the New South Wales Bird 
 Protection Act came into force. This included a list of 105 species of insec- 
 tivorous birds, absolutely protected from the 3 1st of October, 1905, until the 
 same date of 1915. In a proclamation issued early in 1907 other birds were 
 added to this list, and twelve groups of introduced game and song birds were 
 also included. 
 
 The Bird and Animals Protection Act of 1918, now in force, is very much 
 in advance of all the previous acts ; as, unencumbered with long lists of the 
 scientific names of the protected birds and animals, it simply gives a list of 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 those that are not protected in the first and second schedules. Therefore all 
 the birds and animals not black-listed are given complete or partial protection, 
 with a close season while breeding. Included in the Act is a description of all 
 the sanctuaries (where no one is allowed to shoot any kind of bird or animal) 
 in the State. A license fee of 5 is charged all persons who shoot game 
 for sale, and the number of game birds that the holder of a license is allowed 
 to shoot each day is regulated. Besides the members of the police force, 
 about 300 honorary rangers have been appointed and gazetted, including 
 stock inspectors, forest-rangers, officers of the Department of Agriculture, 
 and the Council of the Wild Life Preservation Society. 
 
 Work of Protective Societies. 
 
 Perhaps first in order of the educational agencies active in New South 
 Wales comes the Wild Life Preservation Society of Australia, which was 
 founded in 1909 to encourage the protection and preservation of the 
 Australian fauna and flora. Besides giving popular lectures in town and 
 country centres, and publishing reports, the members have taken a keen 
 interest in all legislation dealing with wild life and the protection of game 
 birds and animals. It was a committee of this society that drew up the 
 original draft of the latest New South Wales act. 
 
 Under the new incorporation, the members of the Royal Zoological Society 
 are actively promoting the spread of knowledge of our birds and animals, and 
 with the splendid collection that is being located at Taronga Park, many 
 town children will be able to know something of the Australian fauna. 
 
 The Gould League of Bird Lovers was founded by some enthusiastic officers 
 in the Department of Education in 1910, as a result of which, thousands of 
 school children receive a certificate, and promise to protect the birds, their 
 nests, and eggs. 
 
 The Influence of Literature. 
 
 The description and illustration of the habits of our insectivorous birds, by 
 the various authors who have devoted their attention to them, has also gone 
 far to enlist the sympathy of the average man as well as materially to benefit 
 producers. Among the first books on our birds was Lewin's " Australian 
 Birds," with hand-coloured plates, which appeared in 1822 ; but it was John 
 Gould who did in Australia what Audubon had done in North America. Gould 
 issued his great work, in seven folio volumes, giving a complete list, with 
 coloured plates and life histories of all the Australian birds described up to 
 that date (1848-69). The publication of his "Handbook of the Birds of 
 Australia" in 1865 enabled all bird lovers and students to acquire a scientific 
 and general idea of Australian birds which was not previously obtainable. 
 It was a happy thought of the educational officers interested in nature-study 
 to call their children's association " The Gould League of Bird Lovers." In 
 1911 Leach's "Australian Bird Book," one of the most useful field-books 
 that was ever brought out was published in Melbourne by an arrangement 
 with the Education Department of Victoria. 
 
8 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 The Necessity for Effective Administrator. 
 
 The movement before the lovers of animal and bird life is to have the 
 protection acts administered as the framers intended, and further still, to 
 have all the State laws dealing with the matter embodied in a comprehensive 
 federal act. It is only a few years ago that the citizens of the United 
 States arrived at the same conclusion; their laws were in ev'en a more 
 complicated condition than ours are at the present time, for not only did 
 each State (and there are forty-eight of them) have a different game and 
 bird protection act within its boundaries, but in some cases several counties 
 of a single State had different regulations and close seasons, so that the 
 unscrupulous pot-hunter could step across the boundary line and kill all he 
 wanted with impunity. The laws of the United States are considered perfect 
 now, in theory afc any rate ; but it is riot so much from what they are doing 
 now as from what was done in spite of the old acts, that we can learn some 
 lessons. All their big game bison and deer in their countless thousands 
 have vanished off the great plains in one generation. Mr. Mitchell, of 
 Victoria, Texas, who came to the " Lone Star State " fifty years ago, told me 
 that he could remember the time when there were more deer on the prairie 
 than there are cattle at the present time. You have only to take up the 
 works of any of the writers of thirty or forty years ago to read how prolific 
 life was on those rich lands. What has become of the countless millions of 
 the passenger pigeons that used to take their flight every year over the North 
 American forests, and which comprised one of the regular food supplies of 
 the settlers? They are reduced to a few isolated flocks now nesting in the 
 Michigan woods. 
 
 When the fashion set in for sea-birds' wings to trim ladies' hats some 
 twenty years ago, there were countless flocks of that beautiful tern known as 
 the Sea Swallow on all the sands and islands from Cape Cod to Southern 
 Florida ; to-day there are only two small islands in the north where a few of 
 these birds can be found nesting, and the Government keeps paid wardens on 
 these islands for their protection. All these great hosts have been slaughtered 
 to deck ladies' hats with their plumage. In our own State what is more 
 common than to see wanton shooting of birds of every kind ? 
 
 The question then arises, who is to administer an effective fauna protection 
 act ? And this question has been answered by the only two great agricultural 
 countries that have taken up the protection in a practical manner the 
 Kingdom of Hungary and the United States of America. 
 
 The United States has solved the matter by making this necessary 
 protection a branch of the Department of Agriculture ; and the officials of 
 the Department, in conjunction with the officers of the Forestry Departments, 
 look after birds and beasts, and study the many side issues that come up 
 through a more or less artificial condition when absolute protection is enforced. 
 About 1858 several workers began to examine the stomachs of birds ; and in 
 1880 Professor S. A. Forbes, of Illinois, tabulated all the work done in this 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 direction and placed the birds in three groups injurious, neutral, and 
 beneficial. On the 1st of July, 1885, the United States Congress established 
 a section of Economic Ornithology, under the direction of Dr. D. Hart 
 Merriam, to carry out investigations, including inquiry into the food habits, 
 distribution, and migrations of North American birds and mammals in 
 relation to agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. In 1896 this branch 
 became a division, under the broader title of the Division of Biological 
 Survey. 
 
 In the offices of this division at Washington there are thousands of 
 stomachs of birds which have been examined and their contents tabulated, eo 
 that the food habits can be determined, and their value as insect destroyers or 
 otherwise, demonstrated. Maps are prepared showing the migration and range 
 of the different birds and animals ; and, while the protection of useful ones is 
 advocated, the methods of dealing with noxious ones are also closely studied. 
 
 The Hungarian Central'Office for Ornithology was instituted in 1894 by 
 Count Albon Caaky, Minister of Public Instruction, and after having been 
 an appendage of the Royal Museum for some years, it was transferred to the 
 Department of Agriculture. In 1901 Ignacz Daranye, Minister of Agri- 
 culture, issued a circular decree, which is one of the most complete and well- 
 thought-out bird and animal protection acts in existence. In 1908 the 
 writer met Dr. Otto Herman who had charge of the Office for Ornithology in 
 Budapest, who<=e untiring energy has made for such successful protection ; 
 not only did he protect all the useful birds, but he showed the people all 
 through the country their value. A map was compiled in which were marked 
 150 stations scattered all over Hungary, where professional ornithologists 
 recorded the migration of as many species as possible ; besides this, 1,300 
 State foresters recorded the movements of the commoner species. 
 
 Artificial nesting-boxes were found so useful to all birds that nest in holes 
 in trees, that a factory for making them was started ; and fourteen years ago 
 (1906) the Minister ordered the Hungarian Central Office for Ornithology to 
 present a scheme for the supply of these artificial nesting-boxes to the State 
 forests, comprising 5,000,000 acres. This work was carried out. 
 
 History of Protection in other Countries. 
 
 In 1845 the protection of mid-European insectivorous birds was advocated 
 by Edward Buldamus, a German enthusiast, and at the initiation of 
 representative German farmers and foresters, an agreement was later made 
 between the latter and the Austrian and Hungarian authorities. This was 
 followed by a number of zoologists, in 1873, framing rules for the protection 
 of birds of economic value. Further efforts were made in 1876, which 
 resulted in an international conference meeting in Vienna in 1884. Bird 
 life protection during the next few years attracted fresh countries to its 
 standard, and at a meeting in Paris, in 1895, at which numerous countries, 
 were represented, an international convention for the protection of birds. 
 
10 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 useful to agriculture was founded, and rules for their protection drawn up. 
 A movement of a related character was started at Berne, in 1913, its object 
 being the consideration of the best methods to be adopted to preserve the 
 natural beauty of the world, and to prevent the rapid extermination of both 
 animal and plant life threatened by the expansion of civilisation and 
 agriculture. Further developments were interrupted by the war. 
 
 In British possessions much has been attempted by legislation to protect 
 useful birds. The Wild Birds Protection Act came into force in British 
 India in 1887, prohibiting the possession or importation of birds into 
 municipal and cantonment areas during the close season. As it was found 
 that this Act did not protect the birds with feathers or skins of commercial 
 value, a notification was issued in 1902, under a section of the Sea Customs 
 Act. which stopped the export by land or sea of any plumes or feathers of 
 useful birds. In Great Britain the Wild Birds Protection Act, of 1880, 
 prohibited the taking or killing of wild birds between March and August, 
 so that they were protected during the breeding season. Eighty-six species 
 were listed under this act, but as sixty were game birds or sea birds, a very 
 small number of insectivorous birds obtained legal protection. In 1894 
 another Act was brought into force with the object of protecting the eggs 
 and nestlings ; but it was only a partial protection, and as the administration 
 was left in the hands of the county councils no one saw that the clauses 
 were carried out. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has taken 
 up the movement of providing nesting boxes in the forests, and issues 
 quarterly reports on " Bird Notes and News." A strong popular sentiment 
 is fostered by " Bird Days," and by the society giving prizes for the best 
 essays on bird protection. 
 
 Sanctuaries. 
 
 One of the most practical and effective ways of stopping the rapid 
 extinction of wild life is to create sanctuaries, where, under natural 
 conditions, " man is passive and the rest of nature is active." With 
 their natural food supplies in these reservations, animals and birds breed 
 freely, and as they increase in numbers and outstrip the food supplies, they 
 overflow into the surrounding country. This applies to all kinds of birds 
 and animals, but particularly to game ; and while sanctuaries should protect 
 wild fowl there is no reason why the overflow of game outside them should 
 not be shot, and so form a valuable addition to the food supplies of the State, 
 just as fish supplies do. Thus a well-situated sanctuary, besides being a 
 home for all kinds of useful birds, would be a depdt for the breeding up of 
 our game birds a point that is sometimes lost sight of by sentimental bird 
 lovers. There is no reason why the true sportsman should not be a nature 
 lover. 
 
 In Great Britain many of the large landed estates are virtually 
 sanctuaries. Several societies have also been formed to protect both the 
 flora and fauna, one of the latest being the Society for the Promotion of 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. II 
 
 Nature Reserves. Its aims as stated in its prospectus are : "In view of the 
 dangers which at present seriously threaten our indigenous fauna and flora- 
 with extinction, to obtain land reserves by gift or purchase." One of the first 
 nature reserves which was acquired was Wicken Fen, near Cambridge. In 
 Hungary a large number of the forest areas in the north were treated as 
 game reserves, and in Germany there was, together with many smaller 
 reserves, a sanctuary of 16,000 acres in the Bavarian Alps, and another o 
 5,000 acres in East Prussia. 
 
 Everybody has heard of the great sanctuary at Yellowstone Park in the 
 United States, where a small herd of bison, the last of the great mobs of 
 American buffaloes have been placed in safety. In Uganda, East Africa, 
 where the great lakes and forests are the last stronghold of the big game 
 that once spread right down to Capetown, the British authorities have 
 formulated well thought-out game laws, and created several huge sanctuaries 
 into which hunters are not allowed to penetrate. 
 
 Holland has purchased Naader Mere as a sanctuary for the nesting water- 
 fowl, and in Denmark a large tract of heath land has been dedicated as a 
 nature reserve for the fauna and flora of Jutland. In Switzerland a national 
 park of 50,000 acres has been made in the Southern Engadine. 
 
 In Australia, as will be seen by the following notes, most of the States have 
 made large reservations of waste lands as national parks, nature reserves, or 
 sanctuaries, but no provision has been made to ensure that the regulations are 
 respected. In Tasmania a number of the smaller islands have been given over 
 to the sea birds, and the curious neck of land, Freycinet Peninsula, was 
 dedicated as an area for the preservation of animals in 1906. In Victoria one 
 of the best known sanctuaries is the National Park at Wilson's Promontorj, 
 which contains 101,730 acres. With the adjoining islands it is controlled by 
 a board of management, which has an annual grant of .500 ; with this they 
 pay two rangers, and the trustees are re-stocking the place with native 
 birds and animals. Three other reservations on the coast total about 25,000 
 acres. Inland they have Buffalo Park of 25,980 acres, Lake Wongon of 
 9,600 acres, and a smaller one at Tower Hill, in the Grampians, of 1,360 acres ; 
 and besides these there are many local areas carefully protected. 
 
 In Queensland there are seven sanctuaries which have been proclaimed 
 Wild Life Protection Reserves, where wild animals and birds are supposed 
 to be safe ; but little or no supervision is carried out. In addition, there are 
 several large forest reserves that should be proclaimed sanctuaries, such as. 
 that at the Bunya Mountains, which comprises 22,500 acres. Under the 
 Wild Animals Protection Act, a number of landowners have had their places 
 gazetted as sanctuaries, and act as honorary rangers. In South Australia, 
 Kangaroo Island Reserve comprises 93,440 acres, and is a sanctuary where 
 fauna and flora are absolutely protected. The National Park, Belair, of 
 2,000 acres, is only a nature reserve. In New South Whales two great 
 
12 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 national parks in the vicinity of Sydney National Park, Port Hacking, of 
 33,719 acres, and Kuring-gai Chase, of 35,300 acres are sanctuaries, together 
 with the reserves round the different caves, ranging from 6,000 acres at 
 Jenolan to 1,400 at Oolong. There are also a number of so-called sanctuaries 
 which exist in name only. 
 
 The Migration of Birds. 
 
 Though the movements and migrations of animals and birds have been 
 recorded since a very early date in a general way, it is remarkable how little 
 was actually known, even down to modern times, about this habit. One 
 would have thought that the educated observer of the time would have 
 known something definite of the movements of the migratory birds of 
 Northern Europe, that congregated together, and every year winged their way 
 southward in search of food and warmth as the winter months drew near, 
 returning with the northland summer to rest in their native land. Yet we 
 find Gilbert White (in that classic, " The Natural History of Selborne,") 
 gravely stating (Letter LV, October, 1781) that he believed that the great 
 flocks of martins hibernated during the winter months in or under the dense 
 thickets of beech scrub near Selborne. The great naturalist, Cuvier, in his 
 " Natural History," published in 1820, said, "It appears certain that 
 swallows become torpid during winter, and even that they pass the season 
 at the bottom of the water in the marshes." Other writers were inclined to 
 doubt their living under the water, and explained their disappearance by 
 stating that they slept through the winter months in recesses of mountain 
 caves. 
 
 The question of migration has, however, been carefully studied during the 
 last twenty-five years from a scientific standpoint, and as one of international 
 importance to be considered when drawing up a comprehensive scheme for 
 the protection of useful birds. It has been for a long time a burning question 
 in Europe, because of the value of the insectivorous birds to the northern 
 countries. Countless flocks of migratory insectivorous and song birds, 
 returning from their winter residence in Africa to Europe for the summer, 
 rest on the southern shore on their homeward flight. These birds are met 
 and caught on the Italian coast; bird-lime, snares, nets, and permanent traps 
 being used. To give some idea of the extent of this destruction, Professor 
 Vallon stated at an International Convention in Hungary that, in October, 
 1890, 500,000 small birds passed through the Customs House at Bressica, 
 chiefly flycatchers, tit-mice, white-throats, and rock-pipets. At Undine 
 200,000 similar birds were caught ; at Montegrade in three days 14,000 
 swallows were killed, while at Crao enormous numbers of swallows were 
 netted. 
 
 Careful observations have been carried out by marking large numbers of 
 migratory birds nesting in the north of Europe and making records of the 
 limits of their southward flight. As an example : among the birds noticed 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 13 
 
 feeding upon the plague locusts in Basutoland, South Africa, during the 
 locusts' invasion of 1909, were many White Storks (Cinconia alba), which 
 spend the summer in Northern Europe, building their nests on the roofs of 
 the Northman's house. Several of these storks, over-gorged with grasshoppers, 
 were caught by the Government officials, and found to have metal rings on 
 their legs dated the previous season, and which had been affixed to them by 
 the observers of the Vogelwarte Institution at Rositten on the Baltic Sea. 
 
 In Canada, the importance of having a Migratory Birds Convention 
 between Great Britain and the United States was considered in 1916. The 
 migration of birds, from Canada to the United States and their return 
 northward in the summer was of such importance that some years ago the 
 Canadian Government considered that a uniform close season for game birds 
 nesting in that country should be passed by the federal authorities of the 
 United States. After a considerable amount of correspondence, a convention 
 was signed at Washington for the protection of certain migratory birds in 
 Canada and the United States. This was known as the Migratory Birds 
 Convention Act for the Protection of Migratory Birds in Canada ; it came 
 into force in 1917. It covers both migratory game and insectivorous birds. 
 
 Many of our Australian birds, though they do not leave this island 
 continent, travel every year from south to north as the winter comes round, 
 returning from Queensland in the early summer. Among many others the 
 wood-swallows (Artamus sp.) always reach Victoria before Christmas, nesting 
 in the low gum scrub, and are thus popularly known by the school children 
 as "small summer birds," while the Black-faced Graucalus which arrives 
 about the same time is known as the "large summer bird." 
 
 The Australian Snipe (Gallinage australis), which goes as far south as 
 Tasmania in the summer months, flies northward at the first hint of winter, 
 nests in Japan from May to August, and returns to New South Wales in 
 September and October. Other Australian birds go to the great plains of 
 Siberia to bring up their nestlings, while the swifts and swallows flitting 
 about the ponds in Melbourne parks may, a few days later, be twittering on 
 the telegraph wires at Bourke or far away in central Queensland. I 
 remember over thirty years ago, watching the gathering together of immense 
 flocks of swallows, which camped for several nights on the lignum swamps 
 in north-western Victoria before starting on their northern jouney to avoid 
 the approaching winter. 
 
 The local migrations of Australian birds from one part of the continent to 
 another, and the gathering together of enormous swarms of certain species of 
 birds, together with their sudden appearance in localities in which they were 
 previously unknown or comparatively rare, is very interesting and worthy of 
 careful record. Dr. George Bennett in his " Gatherings of a Naturalist in 
 Australia," gives an instance : In 1833 the little Water-hen invaded the 
 settlers' gardens in the Swan River Colony, Western Australia, though they 
 had never been seen previously on the coast. Captain Sturt recorded a 
 
H SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 similar migration of the Black-tailed Native-hen into South Australia in 
 1840, when these birds appeared in numbers in the streets of Adelaide. 
 Gould quotes similar observations in the introduction to the "Birds of 
 Australia." In 1906, on the swampy land of the Darling and Barwon 
 rivers, I saw these birds covering acres of land. These and other birds come 
 and go; but we have other experiences where strange birds extend their 
 range southward or coastward $rom the interior, and finding the new location 
 suitable, either take up their abode there, or else return regularly each 
 season to nest. South of the Murray, in the Gunbower district, no pelicans 
 were known when selectors began to occupy the lands in 1875, but five years 
 later, large numbers appeared on the Kow Swamp. They are now to be found 
 all over the larger swamps and lakes, fishing in all the creeks and lagoons. 
 
 Effect of Changing Environment on the Habits of Birds. 
 
 In going into the matter of wild life protection we will find that there 
 are many unnoticed influences which affect the distinctive fauna of any new 
 country like Australia. There is not the least doubt that with the advance 
 of civilisation, when cities spring up, the forest disappears ; and where the 
 farmer ploughs the land the natural herbage vanishes, and so thousands of 
 little creatures, from insects to birds and animals die out or move on as their 
 food supply fails. It is not only the gun of the hunter that kills. If you 
 destroy the natural food of any bird or animal, it may, if of an adaptable 
 nature, find some of the crops grown by the farmer or gardener just as suit- 
 able for food as the original supply ; and so a creature which wa,s under 
 natural conditions, if not useful, at least harmless, becomes a pest/. 
 
 The same state of things comes about when, through the destruction of a 
 natural check upon its undue increase, a useful insectivorous bird increases 
 more rapidly than under the original conditions of life, so that the food supply 
 is insufficient. The farmers' crops are then affected, perhaps not sufficiently to 
 wholly counterbalance the good the birds do in the destruction of pestiferous 
 insects, but to such an extent that the practical farmer takes steps to destroy 
 with poison or gun, a bird he once looked upon with a friendly eye. On the 
 northern plains of Victoria I once watched this evolution of useful to in- 
 jurious birds take place in the course of a very few years. When I first went 
 on the land it was subdivided into very large paddocks, in which the squat- 
 ter grazed sheep. Then came the selectors under the new Land Acts ; the 
 station holdings were cut up into small blocks, and fenced into smaller hold- 
 ings of 320 acres, or even less. U nder the old regime bird and animal life had 
 not altered much from earlier normal conditions, under which it is quite safe 
 to say that from 25 to 50 per cent, of the eggs and nestlings of the magpies, 
 Magpie-larks, and numbers of other insectivorous birds fell victims to hawks, 
 Crows, Whistling-jackasses and to our innocent-looking friend the Laughing- 
 jackass. With settlement came sheep-worrying dogs, and the squatter and 
 .selector laid poisoned baits or poisoned the body of a sheep that had been 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 15 
 
 worried, with the result that the hawks, crows, and other flesh-eaters were killed 
 as well as the dogs. Within a few years the increase of the insectivorous 
 birds on the plains was very noticeable ; as the ploughman sent his team along 
 turning over the furrow, one would see a whole string of magpies and Magpie- 
 larks behind him picking up the grubs and worms exposed. The plough and 
 cultivator brought to hand a fresh, if temporary, increase of food, which meant 
 more nestlings. Then the reaction commenced, the food limit was reached ; 
 one morning the farmer saw magpies hunting over a paddock where the 
 wheat was just showing. At first he rejoiced to see his feathered friends at 
 work for him, probably at a plague of cut-worms or caterpillars. Later on 
 he crossed the paddock and found many young wheat plants pulled up and 
 the soft wheat at the rootlets bitten off. His scientific friend across the 
 creek, to whom he complained, said it was impossible ; magpies would not 
 eat wheat, they were insectivorous ; if they had pulled the wheat seedling 
 up it was to get at some grub on the roots. Unconvinced, the farmer a few 
 days later shot a couple of magpies that he had watched at work on his pad- 
 dock, and on making a rough post-mortem examination of their stomachs, 
 found the bulk of the contents to be soft, spongy wheat grains from the 
 ravished wheatfield. 
 
 Then he took action and shot magpies until the survivors flew away in 
 disgust. Since then many thousands of magpies have been shot in both 
 Victoria and New South Wales for this acquired food habit. 
 
 Again, we have several remarkable groups of birds in Australia which have 
 the tip of their tongue formed like regular little camel's hair brushes, so that 
 they can be inserted into the cup-like calyx of the eucalyptus and other 
 honey-bearing flowers, and the nectar thus drawn up into the mouth. These 
 honey -suckers, belonging to the family Meliphagidce, comprise over fifty 
 species of very beautiful birds. Gould says, " They are, in fact, to the fauna, 
 what the eucalypti, Banksise, and Melaleuca are to the flora of Australia. 
 The economy of these birds is so strictly adapted for those trees that the one 
 appears essential to the other ; for what can be more plain than that the 
 brush-like tongue so especially formed for gathering the honey from the 
 flower cups of the eucalypti, or that their diminutive stomachs are 
 especially formed for this kind of food, and the peculiar insects that form a 
 part of it." Yet the very possession of this wonderful mechanism has been 
 the undoing of several groups of the family ; orchards have been planted near 
 the forest or in land that once was forest, and the birds, investigating, found 
 that ripe fruit is just as good as honey, and when dead ripe is just as easily 
 sucked up into the mouth. Every orchardist knows what damage a party of 
 Leather-heads or Friar-birds can do in an orchard of ripe fruit. 
 
 Then there is the White-eye or Silver-eye, a dainty little bird closely allied 
 to the honey- suckers, and usually considered a useful bird (in some places called 
 the Blight-bird, for like the Blue- wren it comes flying through our gardens in 
 little flocks, creeping through the bushe? and picking off the aphis in large 
 
16 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 quantities in the early part of the year) ; yet later on these birds can do quite 
 a lot of damage in a fruit orchard among ripe fruit, and can clean out a ripe 
 pear or persimmon when once they get an opening in the side. The bird- 
 lover knows of a number of his feathered friends in this doubtful position. 
 We have the pretty little Rosella parrot, a seed-eater all through the winter 
 months, but capable of doing a lot of damage in an apple orchard when once 
 he takes to fruit, and shot as a pest in many of our southern orchards. 
 Quite a number of the green "keets" are the greatest enemies that the 
 cherry-growers have in the north. 
 
 Yet again we have the Bee-bird (Merops ornatus), and the Wood-swallows 
 (Artamus) ; they are purely insectivorous in their diet, and must kill an 
 enormous number of insects, and as the wood-swallows often come south in 
 the early summer to nest, just at the time when the grasshoppers are tra- 
 velling in the same direction, they are friends of no small importance to the 
 farmer. But let them come into the bee-keeper's country, and their fondness, 
 for honey-bees make them his bitterest enemies. 
 
 Returning to the difference, or change, in our fauna produced by systematic 
 rabbit poisoning, the writer thinks a great many loose statements are made. 
 In the first instance, it is not from the actual eating of the poisoned pollard 
 baits that native birds are killed, but from feeding upon the dead bodies of 
 the poisoned rabbits, and, therefore, it is among the larger carnivorous birds 
 that the death-roll is greatest. Many of these destroy eggs and nestlings of 
 birds quite as useful as themselves. One of the most deadly enemies of 
 nestling birds, particularly of those birds that nest in holes in trees, is the 
 large monitor lizard (the " gohanna " of the bushman), so common in all 
 inland forest country. The poisoning of rabbits has caused the death of 
 thousands of these iguanas, and while in the Brewarrina district I noted that 
 wherever there were baits or dead rabbits, dead iguanas were to be found 
 near every tank or dam. 
 
 When bringing in laws to protect our native fauna we must remember, 
 when dealing with the larger birds and animals, that at one time before 
 settlement the blacks and their dogs always acted as a corrective influence 
 on the breeding of wild animals, and the great droughts that passed over the 
 interior were a great check on over-population of forest and plain. It is only 
 a few years ago that the Victorian Government made a strict close season for 
 the larger kangaroos in the Gippsland forests, yet, in 1909, some of the 
 farmers in the protected areas found their crops so badly damaged by the 
 increasing numbers of kangaroos that they waited upon the Premier and 
 asked that the close season be altered. If a protected bird or animal becomes 
 a pest, owing to this protection, its numbers must be reduced. In the United 
 States, under the game laws this is recognised, and permission to shoot in 
 protected areas granted, the quantity of game per man being regulated by 
 the State authorities and game wardens. In California and Texas, in certain 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. IT 
 
 districts, each man of a shooting party can shoot three deer, but no more, in 
 the season, while in some States a farmer can shoot animals and birds on hia 
 own land as pests, but not outside the boundaries of his farm. 
 
 In going through the works of the earlier naturalists one is often struck 
 with the remarks they make on the early extinction of our larger birds and 
 animals. Dr. George Bennett in his " Gatherings of a Naturalist in 
 Australia," published in 1860, says: "We find in England many useful birds 
 (designated by the ignorant as vermin) have been exterminated, and in 
 consequence of the increase of destructive insects they have had to be 
 reintroduced. Now the Australians ought to take a lesson from the 
 experience of others ; for under the present system of destruction many 
 valuable species of that country will be swept away. It is requisite to- 
 preserve the indigenous birds which are now destroyed, not for food, but for 
 mere wantonness, regardless of whether they are useful or obnoxious. In 
 the settled parts of the colony, many of the more common tribes indigenous to 
 the country are no longer seen, and the kangaroos and emus are fast sharing 
 the same fate." Gould said : " I must content myself by praying that 
 protection may be afforded to that noble bird the emu in order that it may. 
 not be extirpated from the continent as it nearly has been from Tasmania." 
 Yet experience has since shown us that many of our birds and animals not 
 only have held their own, but have increased, regardless of advancing civilisa- 
 tion, to such an extent as to become pests. In spite of all its enemies the 
 emu requires very little protection to multiply beyond what was normal 
 before the white man reached these shores. Yet the emu has no friends 
 among the squatters. In Queensland especially, perhaps, this bird has been 
 treated very badly and is denied the protection through breeding-time accorded 
 to nearly all others. 
 
 Introduction of Foreign Animals and Birds. 
 
 The alteration of the balance of power in nature by the introduction of 
 foreign animals and birds is worthy of careful consideration. The far-reaching 
 complications that have arisen over the greater part of Australia through the 
 abnormal increase and spread of the rabbit, and by the destruction of native 
 animal life through the methods adopted by the landholders to destroy this 
 pest, have already been touched upon. Poisoned baits are responsible for the 
 death of some birds ; but the poisoning of water in summer to kill the 
 rabbits is much more deadly to bird life, and it is a method that should only 
 be permitted under proper supervision by stock inspectors. The domestic cat 
 is a very much more serious manace to bird life than most people imagine. 
 Numbers of ownerless cats are roaming over our parks and gardens about 
 Sydney, and as they have to steal or catch their food, they are responsible for 
 the disappearance of hundreds of our most valuable insectivorous birds. In 
 the country, cats wander away from the homesteads or shepherds' huts, and 
 taking to the bush, revert to their natural hunting habits, and bring up 
 families more predaceous than themselves. 
 
18 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 During the height of the rabbit invasion in western New South \Taies, 
 some landholders liberated numbers of cats in their paddocks in the hope 
 that they would multiply and help to check the rabbits, but the latter were 
 so numerous, and easy to catch, that the cats that confined their attention to 
 rabbits developed hair balls in their stomachs and died ; only those that 
 varied their diet with birds survived. 
 
 The introduction of the fox, and its rapid spread of late years right into 
 the interior of Australia, was another destructive agent in the diminution 
 of bird life. All the ground-nesting birds of the plains, such as plovers, 
 bustards, ducks and quail, are at the mercy of the night-prowling fox, while 
 in the forest the lyre-bird, scrub-turkey and many other birds are threatened 
 with extinction. 
 
 Turning to the introduced birds we are faced with other serious problems. 
 The ubiquitous sparrow follows the railway lines into the country and sets up 
 in competition with our useful native birds. Before they were so numerous 
 in England, house-martins were found in every village and kept down many 
 insect pests, but the sparrow, taking possession of their nests and otherwise 
 persecuting them, has driven them out of many of their old haunts during 
 the last few years. The common starling is another bird that thrives and 
 multiplies wherever it finds suitable surroundings ; one has only to see the 
 enormous flocks in New England and on the Liverpool Plains to understand 
 how they have must have altered the conditions of native bird life. They, 
 like the sparrow, follow the railway lines into the country, and I have seen 
 them at Byrock and other western towns quite fitting into their new 
 .surroundings. Not only do they devour large quantities of the natural food 
 supplies of our native birds, but they nest in hollow trees and interfere with 
 the local birds. It is a well-known fact that in England they often raid 
 dovecots and eat the pigeons' eggs. Both in size and cunning they are 
 superior to the sparrow and more difficult to trap or shoot. 
 
 The time has gone by when stockowners considered every native bird or 
 animal that ate grass or trampled the herbage, a pest and an enemy in 
 competition with sheep and cattle, and that by destroying them as such they 
 civilised the country. We have learnt much in the last decade, and in the 
 rising generation are many young landowners who, profiting by the educa- 
 tional facilities won for them by their pioneer fathers, and a perhaps wider 
 outlook, are interesting themselves in the fauna and flora of their native 
 land and co-operating with nature lovers in their preservation. There are 
 many Australian estates to-day where nobody is allowed to shoot or hunt, 
 and these are virtually private sanctuaries ; others have been actually dedi- 
 cated with the approval of the State authorities. Many other landowners 
 need only to have the facts brought under their notice to induce them to 
 follow suit. The zoological and field naturalists' societies now include many 
 country members, and each one becomes an agent for good in his own 
 district. Surely there is room in this broad land for all of us man, beast, 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 bird, and tiny bush ally ! I do not for a moment suggest that the man ort 
 the land is not entitled to protect his crops of field or garden, but there 
 are thousands of square miles of forest, plain, swamp, lake, and mountain in 
 Australia, where wild creatures do no harm, but add to the beauty of nature. 
 It should be our aim to. stop all wanton destruction in such places, but such 
 an aim can only be achieved by so educating our people that they appreciate 
 the value, the interest, and the beauty to be discovered in the little creatures- 
 of the fields. 
 
 The Classification Adopted in this Work. 
 
 In order that the descriptions of our birds in the following pages may be 
 more convenient, a classification consisting of three main sections, according 
 to the environment of the bird, has been adopted, as follows : 
 Section I. Birds of the Garden, Orchard, and Field. 
 Section II. Birds of the Forests and Brushes. 
 
 Section III. Birds of the Inland Plains, Swamps, Open Forests, and 
 Scrubs. 
 
 Obviously these sections must overlap somewhat. For example, some 
 birds found in the coastal forests of New South Wales may also be found in 
 the suburban gardens of Sydney, or again others may be found equally at 
 home in the box forests of the western plains. Where this is the case, the 
 bird is described under one or other of the headings, and reference is made 
 in the text to its range. 
 
20 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIEDS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Birds of the Garden, Orchard and Field* 
 
 The birds included in this division may also be classed under the heading 
 " semi-domesticated " ; they come from the ranks of the second and some- 
 times even the third section. This section includes not only the birds 
 of the the suburban gardens of Sydney and the orchards of the County of 
 Cumberland, but those of gardens, orchards, and fields all over Australia. 
 The description of a number of birds such as the Cobler's-awl or Spine-bill 
 (Acanlhorhynchuus tenuirostris) and other honey-eaters that are garden 
 visitants, is prohibited by exigencies of space. 
 
 The question of the value of the common introduced birds such as the 
 sparrow is an open one. Gurney, in his work on the common sparrow, 
 states that they destroy 770,000 worth of food annually in Great Britain, 
 while Captain White has recently stated that they do an immense amount 
 of good in devouring the seeds of weeds. The Sydney gardener certainly 
 finds them a very destructive pest amongst his fruit and vegetables, eating 
 far more than they save from the noxious insects they at other times devour. 
 The starling, another garden bird, chiefly lives at the expense of the fowls in 
 the suburban chicken yards ; and the claims made by landowners who have 
 been recklessly spreading them on the western sheep stations under the 
 impression that they catch blowflies, are only bringing another useless 
 omnivorous bird to compete for the food of our more useful native birds. 
 The dainty introduced doves do no harm at present ; but it would be quite 
 possible for them to increase in such numbers as to become a seed pest. The 
 common English Ring-dove is at times a very serious pest to the pea crops 
 in Great Britain. 
 
 The birds dealt with under our first section are as follows : 
 
 Welcome Swallow (Hirundo moxena). Yellow-rumped Tit 
 Fairy Martin (Petrochelidon ariel). (Acanthiza chrysorrhoa). 
 
 Willie- wagtail (Rhipadura tricolor). White-browed Wood-swallow 
 Jacky- winter (Microecafuscinana). (Arlamus superciliosus). 
 
 Grinder (Sisura inquieta). Masked Wood-swallow 
 Magpie-lark (Grallina picata). (Artamus peisonatus). 
 
 Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) . Red-capped Robin (Petrceca goodenovii) . 
 
 Silver-eye (Zosterops cosrukscens). Scarlet-breasted Robin (Pelrwca kggii). 
 
 Ground Lark (Anthus australis). Flame-breasted Robin 
 Bronze Cuckoo (Chakococcyx plagosus) . (Petrceca phcenicea) . 
 
 Fan tailed Cuckoo Miner or Soldier-bird 
 
 (Cacomantis flabelliformis). (Myzantha garrula). 
 
 Blue Wren (Malurus cyaneus). Laughing-jackass (Dacelo gigas). 
 
I 
 
 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " WELCOME SWALLOW." 
 
 Hirundo neoxena, Gould. 
 
 
^ \ 
 
 I 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " FAIRY MARTIN." 
 
 Petrochelidon ariel, Gould. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 21 
 
 The Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena Gould). 
 Gould's Handbook, Vol. I, p. 107, No. 53 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 120, No. 238. 
 
 The members of the swallow family all the world over have been studied 
 on account of their semi domestic habits, their numbers, their curious nesting 
 habits, and their habit of regularly migrating from the cold lands at the 
 approach of winter to follow the summer. 
 
 Following the rule of the European swallows, our birds migrate and 
 travel from the northern parts of Australia to reach Tasmania about the end 
 of September ; after rearing two broods they leave that island for the main- 
 land in March. I have rioted them about this period in north-western 
 Victoria, gathering together in great flocks and camping at night in the 
 lignum swamps for some days before they started on their return north- 
 ward. 
 
 In the northern parts of New South Wales and Queensland, though some 
 of the swallows migrate, there are always a number that remain all through 
 the year, as long as food supplies are plentiful. In the north and north- 
 western districts the swallows are often nesting right up to the end of the 
 year. They place their nests under iron roofs and low sheds, and when a 
 heat wave comes along, with a hot wind and a shade temperature of over 
 100 deg., hundreds of young swallows die in the nests. 
 
 The bowl-shaped nest is composed of pellets of clay strengthened with bits 
 of grass, and forms a solid mud nest which is lined with feathers, wool, hair, 
 and other soft materials ; it contains from three to five glossy, white eggs, 
 speckled and spotted with reddish-brown and slate-grey, thickest upon the 
 larger end. 
 
 These nests are placed in all kinds of curious situations ; the reader is 
 referred to Campbell's "Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds" for an account 
 of the many places where they have been recorded. They are usually 
 constructed against a wall or cliff; but, with the advance of civilisation, 
 the birds have adapted themselves to their surroundings and now place 
 them under bridges, along the rafters of woolsheds and stables, and under 
 the shelter of the verandah of country and suburban houses. They give a 
 certain amount of trouble to the housewife by the mess and litter they make. 
 In the country it is often claimed that their presence brings snakes about, 
 and it is not an uncommon thing to see strings and paper or empty bottles 
 suspended along the underside of the homestead verandah to discourage 
 the swallows. In spite of this, their cheerful, happy chirping notes, and their 
 dainty ways as they rest on fence, clothes line, or telephone wires, endear 
 them to everybody, and few persons would kill a swallow " it would be 
 unlucky," some people will tell you. 
 
 The immense value of the flocks of swallows from an insectivorous point 
 of view, is hard to estimate, but they play a very important part in keeping 
 down the swarms of mosquitos, gnats, and other pests, and therefore should 
 be most carefully protected. 
 
22 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 We have a second species of swallow, the White- backed Swallow (Chera- 
 monca leucostereum), which is non-migratory and seldom goes in flocks of more 
 than ten or twenty. It hawks for insects much higher in the air than th& 
 Welcome Swallow, though sometimes it flies with the latter. It also has- 
 very distinct nesting habits, drilling small holes into sandy banks, and 
 excavating a small chamber at the end. This it lines with leaves and grass,, 
 before depositing its eggs. 
 
 The Fairy Martin (Petrochelidon anel Gould). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 113, No. 56 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 121, No. 241. 
 
 Like the Welcome Swallow, this beautiful little bird is migratory. It 
 arrives in the south about August, rears two broods, and leaves for the north 
 in February or March. A remarkable characteristic of this little martin is- 
 its habit of shunning the coast, and not nesting about the coastal towns. 
 The nearest point to Sydney at which I have seen the nests of these 
 birds is the old church at Richmond, which always has a fine community of 
 nests. They are also plentiful about Maitland. 
 
 The nests are often packed so close together, under the shelter of over- 
 hanging rocks or the eaves of houses, that they lose their regular shape and are- 
 built into each other, but the regular spout-like neck always projects outward. 
 On account of the shape of their nests the birds are often called Bottle-nest 
 Swallows. Sometimes the nests are built in the cavities of hollow or decayed 
 trees, or under the high river banks. It is remarkable what a large amount 
 of clay is used by such a small bird to construct each nest. According to 
 Gould, a number of birds often work together in building, some bringing the 
 supplies of clay pellets, others receiving them and moulding the nest. The 
 nest is deeply lined with feathers and other soft material, and contains four or 
 five eggs some pure-white, and others spotted with red. The nests of this- 
 bird often contain a small circular or oval flattened tick, related to the fowl 
 tick, Argus lagenoplastes. 
 
 The Tree Swallow, which Gould placed in the genus Hylochelidon, is now 
 placed in the same genus as the Fairy Martin, and known as Petrochelidon 
 nigricans. It is a very common visitor as far south as Hobart in the summer 
 months ; it " nests " in holes in trees, making actually no nest, but placing, 
 its eggs on the soft decayed wood. 
 
 The Jacky- winter (Micrceca fascinans Latham). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 258, No. 149 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 121, No 242. 
 This popular name sticks to this little bird, although his more accurate 
 designation would be the Brown Flycatcher. He is one of the most active 
 little flycatchers, darting from a twig or post to snap up any small moth, beetle, 
 or other insect flying carelessly by, or picking up some small creature 
 incautiously showing itself on the ground. His purpose accomplished, lie flies. 
 
N 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 "JACKY WINTER." 
 
 MICRCECA FASCINANS, Lath. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 "SCISSORS GRINDER." 
 
 SISURA INQUIETA, Lath. 
 
*t 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 23 
 
 back chattering to his resting place, frequently flirting his tail backwards 
 .and forwards to show the outer white feathers that contrast with his uniform, 
 dull-brown tints. 
 
 This little bird has a wide range over the greater portion of New South 
 Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland. It makes a small, shallow 
 nest of fine grass, matted together- with spiders' web, and ornamented with 
 bits of bark and lichen. The nest is usually placed at the end of a 
 horizontal branch, and contains two (rarely three) greyish-blue eggs, blotched 
 with reddish-brown and purple. The note of this bird, particularly when 
 busy or excited, is translated by our school children as "Peter, Peter," so 
 that he is sometimes called after his call note, instead of Jacky-winter. 
 Some half-dozen other common names indicate his popularity with the 
 children. 
 
 The Grinder or Restless Flycatcher (Sisura inquieta, Latham). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 216, No. 141 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 125, No. 259. 
 
 This busy and fussy flycatcher might at first sight be taken for the Willie- 
 wagtail, but observation of the two together would soon make plain a difference. 
 The Grinder is more slender in form, with the whole of the under surface 
 right to the beak, white, while the throat of the Willie-wagtail is black ; 
 the whole of the former's upper surface is, too, a shining glossy black, and 
 when hovering and emitting its harsh grinding note it erects the feathers on 
 Its head into a regular crest. The female is not so richly tinted, her wings 
 and sides being of a rusty-brown. 
 
 About a house, these birds often hover for some time in front of a window, 
 uttering their harsh cry. At a station hom'estead a lady told me that if she 
 left her bedroom window open, one used to come regularly into the room and 
 hover in front of the looking-glass on the dressing table, chattering away at 
 Ms own reflection. This species has a wide range over the greater part of 
 Australia with the exception of the tropical north, and frequents all classes of 
 country ; it is a very active hunter of small insects, catching its food on the 
 ground, or hovering in the air with a rapid motion of the wings like one of 
 our wind-hover hawks. Specimens shot in the Trangie district in the early 
 summer were found to have been feeding upon blow-flies belonging to the 
 yellow and green varieties. Their stomachs were packed with the remains. 
 
 The Grinder's usual note is a loud l^rsh call (from which it gets its popular 
 name of Grinder or Scissors-grinder), but it sometimes emits a loud, clear 
 whistle. When hovering it comes down very quickly to the ground to 
 pick up any stray insect. Gilbert recorded it as plentiful in Western Aus- 
 tralia, where it frequented the mangroves and scrubs, making, while feeding 
 on the ground, a call like the croak of a frog. It builds a small cup-shaped 
 nest composed of stringy-bark fibre and cobwebs mixed together, and closely 
 lined. The nest contains a pair of bluish-white eggs, blotched and spotted 
 jail over with olive and greyish-brown. 
 
24 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 The Willie-wagtail (Rhipadura tricolor Yiellot). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 238, No. 134 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 125, No. 256. 
 
 While this bird is preening himself in the morning sun his restless black 
 tail is constantly on the wag ; hence his popular name of Willie- wagtail. He 
 is not, however, a true wagtail ; and, though he somewhat resembles the 
 pied-wagtails of Europe in outward appearance and coloration, he is pro- 
 perly a flycatcher, flirting his tail from side to side instead of wagging up 
 and down the orthodox direction. In the inland districts he is well-known 
 under the name of Shepherd's Companion, because there are few shepherd's; 
 huts in the west where you will not find a pair of these birds. There are 
 always a few about every home station, and they are regular visitors in our 
 suburban gardens and parks. Willie- wagtail is one of the few restless, day- 
 flying birds that talks all through the night, and his chattering note, which 
 the bush children translate as " sweet pretty creature," adds another popular 
 name to this list. He is properly known as the Black-and-white Fantail. 
 
 This little bird has a wide range over the whole of Australia, extending; 
 into New Guinea, Aru Islands, Solomon Islands, and New Ireland. He is 
 one of our most active insectivorous birds, following sheep about when feed- 
 ing, and snapping up the moths, flies, and other small insects that the flock 
 disturbs, hopping on and off the backs of horses and cattle (which he uses as; 
 stations of observation for moving insects) and picking the parasites and flies; 
 that infest the animals' skin. In the garden he is just as busy; while 
 he is also one of the few native birds that I have observed hunting round 
 dead animals for blow-flies. Like many of their group, these birds are dainty 
 artificers, constructing a beautiful, soft, cup-shaped nest composed of grass^ 
 bits of bark, wool, hair, and any other suitable material they come across.. 
 This mass is delicately woven into a soft-felted mass, and bound all over and 
 around with spiders' web, so that when the labours of the builders are finished 
 the nest is so neatly attached to its limb that it has no angles or sharp out- 
 lines. Indeed, it blends into the surroundings so completely that the casual 
 observer would scarcely suspect it was a nest, and would pass it quite closely 
 under the impression that it was simply a natural excrescence on the tree's^ 
 limb. The nest is very often placed on a dead limb standing out from a. 
 living tree, frequently so low that one can see the mother snuggled down 
 with the tip of her tail and her beak extending beyond the rim of the nest. 
 
 The eggs are four in number, oval, and broadly rounded at one end ; they 
 are of dull yellowish-white, marked and spotted with an olive and grey band 
 round the upper half. Campbell confirms the statement that the Willie- 
 wagtail sometimes rears three broods of nestlings in a season so they cer- 
 tainly ought to be considered " good Australians." 
 
 For their size the birds are good fighters, and will drive larger ones away 
 from their nests. On a lawn in the Botanic Gardens last summer I 
 watched one attack a stray cat that crawled out from some bushes to- 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " WILLIE WAGTAIL." 
 RHIPIDURA TRICOLOR, Vieill 
 
& 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 " PEE-WEE." 
 
 Grallina picata, Lath. 
 

SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 25 
 
 get some remnants of a lunch on the grass. The little bird flew over him 
 chattering all the time, and finally drove him back into the shelter of the 
 bushes. 
 
 The Victorian Naturalist has several records of the Pallid Cuckoo placing 
 her egg in the nest of this bird, and using her as a foster-mother. Dr. 
 Bennett, in his " Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia " (p. 208), gives a 
 wood-cut showing a Fantailed Flycatcher feeding a young Bronze Cuckoo. 
 He says : " It was ludicrous to observe the large and apparently well-fed 
 bird filling up with its corpulent body the entire nest, receiving daily the 
 sustenance intended for several young flycatchers ; and we could imagine 
 underneath the nest the skeletons of the former tenants sacrificed to the 
 rearing of this parasitical cuckoo." 
 
 Th3 Magpie-lark (Grallina picata Latham). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, page 118, No. 12S ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 148, No. 314. 
 
 There is not a more dainty or a more fearless grass-hunting bird than the 
 Magpie-lark. It is cosmopolitan in its range. All over Australia, wherever 
 fresh water is found and there is timber, you will hear the plaintive calf of 
 the Pied Grallina or Magpie-lark a bird note that has led to its gaining also 
 the name of Pee-weet, which we hope, because of its application to a 
 well-known European sea-shore bird, will be dropped for the more original 
 name. 
 
 These birds are not uncommonly seen in our suburban gardens hunting 
 over the lawns for grass insects, and if it were not for that curse of bird 
 life, the domestic cat, they would soon increase in numbers. The flight 
 of the Magpie-lark is undulating, and as she settles down on roof or grass 
 she sends forth her clear note "pee-weet," repeated several times. Coming to 
 .a water-hole to drink or hunt for insects she has a dainty mincing strut 
 which is very characteristic. At Warrah Experimental Station I was 
 interested in watching a Magpie-lark that spends all its spare time resting 
 on a spout and pecking at the office window. The manager said that 
 this had been going on for three years ; and that, viewed from the 
 outside, the bird could see its reflection in the sheet of glass evidently the 
 .attraction. 
 
 There seems to be no valid reason why some birds, delicate and graceful, 
 should adopt the habit of plasterers, and make solid large -nests of mud, such 
 AS those of the swallows, martins, Black-magpies, and our Magpie-lark. The 
 nest is generally built on a stout stem of a gum-tree adjacent to the water, 
 well up from the ground and out of reach of enemies ; but she often builds 
 some distance away from water, and I once saw a nest on an orna- 
 mental gum-tree on the main street of Moree, in quite an exposed position. 
 The nest is shaped like a round basin ; it has a solid base and well-built sides, 
 and is lined inside with grass and feathers on which are laid three, four, 
 or sometimes five pyriform pearly-white eggs marked with a mottled 
 
26 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 band of purple, red, and pink of various shades around the upper halL 
 According to Campbell, the Pallid Cuckoo sometimes adopts the Magpie-lark 
 as a mother for her baby and places her egg in the nest. When hawks and 
 Butcher-birds were plentiful in the Murray swamps of north-western Victoria,, 
 a very large percentage of the young nestlings of the Magpie-larks were 
 destroyed by these carniverous birds; while the big lizards (" gohannas ") 
 accounted for many more. With the passing of these enemies, and with the 
 adaptation of these birds to their surroundings, their numbers are increasing" 
 in all suitable localities. When the great wheat stacks were built at White 
 Bay and Enfield, it was remarkable how many Magpie-larks were attracted 
 to these localities, the swarms of insects breeding from the wheat being the 
 attraction. The deserted nests of these birds are often occupied later in the 
 season, and after they have reared their broods, by the wood-swallows,. 
 Graucalus, and other birds. 
 
 The Magpie-lark, though it will sometimes pick up bits of maize and grain 
 in the chicken yard, is almost entirely insectivorous in its food. Under 
 normal conditions, ants, small ground beetles, and moth larvae form a con- 
 siderable portion of its diet. When the locust plagues appear, and the young 
 are in the nest, the birds have a busy time. I once watched a pair of 
 Magpie-larks bring forty well-grown grasshoppers to their lusty babies in. 
 half an hour. This bird is also recorded to be a formidable enemy of the- 
 fresh-water snail that is the intermediate host of the liver fluke of sheep, and 
 for this work alone it should have the protection of all stockowners. The 
 males and females can be easily distinguished from each other by the white 
 face of the female and the black face of her mate. 
 
 The Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicin, Latham). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 175, No. 92 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 149, No. 316. 
 
 According to ornithologists there are four distinct species of magpies ; 
 according to the book they are "Piping Crow-shrikes," yet the man in. 
 the bush knows them all as magpies. There is one species restricted to 
 Tasmania, another to south-western Australia, and two are found in the 
 eastern States. Campbell considers that the White-backed Magpie 
 (Gymnorhina leuconata Grey) is more a coastal bird in South Australia and 
 Victoria, and that it " tapers out " in the inland districts, where the Black- 
 backed Magpie is the most common. Our common species under review 
 ranges over Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland, 
 while the white-backed species does not extend into Queensland. 
 
 The magpies increase in number in areas where there are cultivation pad- 
 docks and the land is tilled. Inland, they are scantily scattered over the 
 land in pairs or small families along the rivers and about the homesteads. 
 In spite of the statement that rabbit-poisoning has killed out cur mag- 
 pies, let one go through the New England country when the ploughmen are 
 at work and he will see dozens of them hunting over the freshly turned soil ; 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 "MAGPIE.'' 
 
 Gymnorhina tibicen, Lath. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 37 
 
 indeed, he will see them in suitable hunting grounds in many districts s.uch 
 as, for instance, the Liverpool Plains. The magpie is one of the most 
 important of our birds as an insect hunter and destroyer, hunting over 
 paddocks (where it turns over cowdung and sticks to get at the hidden 
 insects) and equally busy in the forests and farms. It is also a valuable 
 ally in destroying mice. During the mice plague in 1917-18 large 
 numbers of these birds congregated in the vicinity of the wheat stacks 
 in the Riverina. At Lockhart I counted over a hundred, and when I 
 turned over bags and a swarm of sheltering mice scattered over the 
 yards the magpies often flew along and snapped up a mouse as he was 
 running. At night the magpie rests in the timber, and pours forth at day- 
 break its morning hymn "all's well with the world." There are few birds 
 in the world that can send forth such a rich carol as a family of magpies on 
 a summrner morning in the Australian forests, or at night a pleasanter 
 ven-song. 
 
 The semi-domesticated magpie that comes round the homestead garden, 
 often contracts bad habits; it pulls up plants and damages fruit, and some- 
 iimes, when food is short, it goes into the cultivation paddock and pulls up the 
 green shoots peeping through the soil to eat the soft grain at the base. In 
 such cases these rogue magpies have to be driven away and if too persistent, 
 - shot. 
 
 The magpie constructs an open round bowl-shaped nest composed of sticks 
 bark, and twigs, lined inside with finer material, such as hair and feathers. 
 It is generally placed well out in the fork of a stout branch of a gum-tree. 
 The clutch of eggs varies from three to five in number ; the eggs are usually 
 of a blue or greenish tint, thickly mottled or marbled with pink or brownish- 
 red, but they are remarkable for their many changes in ground colour and 
 markings very often in the same nest. 
 
 There are no more interesting birds for pets than a pair of young magpies 
 and none more easily fed and reared when plenty of fresh meat is available. 
 When domesticated, they will soon learn to follow one round, and with their 
 bright eyes on the watch they will snap up every grub or earthworm turned 
 up in the garden soil. In the early morning it is interesting to watch one of 
 these birds walking along the walls and picking off all stray flies and moths 
 before the sun has roused them from their semi-torpid condition. During 
 a, visit to the New Hebrides, I was interested in noting how easy It 
 is to alter the balance of power in insect or bird life by the introduction 
 of a bird useful in its native country, into a new land under altered 
 conditions of life. At Ringdove Bay in the New Hebrides the planters had 
 imported some magpies from Sydney which roamed about the compound and 
 lived almost exclusively upon the small insect-eating lizards so abundant in 
 the islands, and which live among the foliage of the scrub trees. In 
 destroying these lizards they were of course doing much more harm than good. 
 
28 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 When nesting, the old magpies are often very savage, and will fly down and 
 snap savagely over one's head to drive him away from the vicinity of their 
 nests. In captivity the dispositions of magpies are markedly dissimilar ; one 
 may be quiet and friendly and will come squawking up in a very amicable 
 manner, while another delights in waylaying the children and attacking 
 their bare legs with its powerful sharp beak. A magpie under domestication 
 learns many curious habits some good and some bad. After watching the 
 gardeners planting out seedlings he will often follow around and pull them 
 them up through a spirit of mischievous curiosity. One magpie I owned 
 imitated the cackling of a laying hen ; it used to crawl under a hedge 
 close to the fowl-house, and after cackling in a most perfect imitation of an 
 old hen, would creep away when the owner came to look for the egg, as if he 
 thoroughly enjoyed the joke. Some learn to whistle tunes, and others can 
 talk with a more or less limited vocabulary ; but in captivity one never hears 
 the glorious trills and piping flute-like notes of the free magpie. 
 
 The Silver-eye (Zosterops ccerulescen? Latham). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 587, No. 360 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 155, No. 334. 
 
 These quaint little birds are well known in our suburban gardens, and 
 might almost be considered semi-domesticated, they are so tame and fearless 
 when hunting through the rose bushes and shrubs for aphides, small moths r 
 and other soft-bodied insects. They are popularly known as Silver-eyes or 
 White-eyes, on account of the curious ring of small white feathers round the 
 eye, which gives them a rather comical but characteristic appearance. The 
 Sydney schoolboy, who often clips his words, is content to call them just 
 " Sivies." This species has a wide range around the Australian coast from 
 South Australia to Queensland, but, though occasionally recorded from inland 
 districts, it is only a stray visitor over the western side of the mountains. 
 I have seen them in Bendigo, Victoria, and they have been noted as 
 far north-west as the Murray. They have a wide range over Tasmania, and 
 are established in New Zealand, where they were first noticed in 1856. There 
 is some question as to whether they are indigenous, or emigrants from 
 Australia, but as they are also common in Fiji, New Caledonia, and the New 
 Hebrides, they may be natives of all these islands. 
 
 A second species, Zosterops gouldi, which takes the place of the species- 
 common in Western Australia, is known as the Grape-bird or Fig-bird, 
 Though an insectivorous bird all through the winter months and early 
 summer when insect pests are at their worst, the Silver-eye, like a number of 
 other honey -suckers belonging to the family Meliphagidce, has adapted its- 
 habits to its surroundings, and finds its curious brush-tipped tongue (which 
 should be used for brushing up the honey on the flowers of the honey-suckles 
 and other native flowering shrubs) admirably adapted, in conjunction with its- 
 sharp-pointed beak, for sucking up the juices of grapes, persimmons, figs, and 
 other dead-ripe fruit. Though sometimes spoken of as the " blight bird," orx 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " THE WHITE EYE OR SILVER EYE." 
 
 Zosterops ccerulescens. 
 
3> 
 
1 V 
 
 < o 
 
 us 
 
 E "^ 
 
 5 ~ 8 
 
 p -. <3 
 
 2 S 
 
 & < ^ 
 
 CB 
 
 5 < 
 
 6 P^ 
 O ^ 
 Ctf cc 
 
 oU 
 & 
 
 tJ 
 W 
 
 ^ 
 < 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 29 
 
 account of its aphis-eating habits, it is also well known as a pest in summer, 
 when, gatherer! together in little flocks of half a dozen or more, it appears 
 among our grape-vines. 
 
 One of my earliest recollections of bird life is, when a very small boy, 
 seeing my father, in an orchard near Melbourne, catch a Silver-eye in a 
 large ripe pear, which it had with its friends nearly hollowed out on the tree. 
 
 The Silver-eye is one of the smallest of the honey-eaters, and is of a general 
 olive-green colour, the back tinted with dark grey and the under surface lighter 
 coloured ; it is short and somewhat thick-set in form, and has a short whistle- 
 like cry, by which its presence can be easily located, when flitting through the 
 bushes. It forms a rounded cup-shaped nest, composed of grass, wool, and 
 such-like material in any low bush, in which it lays three delicate pale-blue 
 eggs, and it is not uncommon to find the speckled egg of the cuckoo also in 
 the nest. 
 
 The Silver-eye must be included in any list of insectivorous birds, on 
 account of the valuable work it does in destroying countless numbers of 
 minute insect pests, but at the same time we must allow that in a trellis of 
 unsheltered grape-vines he is a cunning little thief, and can do a considerable 
 amount of damage. 
 
 The Ground Lark (Anthus australis Vig. and Horsf.) 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 392, No. 240 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 176, No. 370. 
 
 This common, and active little brown bird is frequently seen flying up from 
 the roadside, running over the open grass lands, taking short flights or resting 
 in the shade of a tussock of grass. If disturbed when on the nest, it slips 
 away through the grass, pretending it has a damaged wing or leg, and goes 
 through all kinds of tricks to lead the intruder away from its home. The nest is 
 a well-built, circular, cup-shaped structure comprised of dead grass, lined 
 with hair or feathers, placed in a depression in the ground among the grass. 
 The clutch consists of three or four greyish or stone-coloured eggs, spotted 
 and splashed with brown. The nest and eggs match and blend with the 
 surroundings so well that, unless you stumble on one accidentally before the 
 bird has time to get away, you are not likely to find the ground-larks at home^ 
 
 Though spending most of her time on the ground, hunting for all kinds of 
 ground insects such as beetles, moth larvae, ants, and grubs, the Ground Lark 
 has the habit of frequently flying up in the air, trilling out her delicate lark, 
 like notes, both as she is rising and as she floats in the air. Though of a 
 uniform plain, dull-brown colour, her plumage is admirably adapted for 
 protective coloration against the many enemies that fly above all ground- 
 dwelling birds. Her friendly, fearless habits of running along only a few 
 yards away will always make her a popular and noticeable bird with our 
 bush lovers. 
 
 The Ground Lark is sometimes called the Australian Pipet. It ranges all 
 over Australia and Tasmania. 
 
30 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 The Bronze Cuckoo [Chalcococcyx (Lamprococcyx) plagosus]. 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 623, No. 3S3 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. Ill, No. 235. 
 
 Australia has a number of species of cuckoo in her bird fauna, 
 but most of them are shy, retiring biids that are seldom noticed by the 
 casual observer. 
 
 This pretty little cuckoo is one of the best known of the family, from its 
 habit of coming into our gardens and orchards looking for insects. It is a 
 great favourite with vine-growers, because it is one of the very few birds 
 that will eat the vine-moth caterpillar (Agarista glycine), which often does 
 so much damage to the foliage and young grapes in the early part of the 
 season. 
 
 It is not uncommon about the suburban gardens near Sydney, but is 
 a quiet, shy bird, flitting about among the vines and trees hunting for 
 insects, seldom when feeding giving its gentle whistle-like call note. 
 Wheelwright, author of the " Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist/' published 
 in 1861, gives many notes on the birds in Victoria, and says : " The Bronze 
 Cuckoos were very common in the honeysuckle scrub ; they have a very loud 
 cry for their size, resembling that of the English wryneck." The female 
 has the true cuckoo instinct of finding a foster-mother for her offspring, and, 
 laying aside all motherly feelings, hunts round until she finds the nest of 
 either the little Blue Wren or the Silver-eye in which she places her olive- 
 green eggs, and flies away with no family cares to worry her. 
 . Like many of the other cuckoos, however, she has a large list of other 
 small birds that she favours with her eggs. Campbell says, " She usually 
 chooses the covered-in nests of the Acanthizae (tits) tribe, but other species 
 of builders of dome-shaped or secluded nests are chosen,'' and he gives a I's.t 
 of twenty-seven small birds, of various families, in the nests of which this 
 cuckoo's eggs have been recorded. 
 
 In this bird the scientific, as well as the popular, name is well chosen, as 
 the generic name is composed of two Greek words (Lampro and coccyx), the 
 first meaning shining and the second a cuckoo ; it has been recently 
 placed in the allied genus Chalcococcyx, but is better known under the 
 old name. 
 
 In the Bronze Cuckoo we have a very friendly and useful bird in our 
 gardens and orchards, but its value is discounted to a great extent by the 
 fact that it is a parasite in the nests of so many other useful little birds. 
 
 The Fantailed Cuckoo (Cacomantis fiabelliformis Latham). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 568, No. 451 ; Leich's Bird Book, p. 109, No. 230. 
 
 This appears to have been one of the first Australian cuckoos to attract the 
 attention of the early settlers in the bush. It was called the Lesser Cuckoo, to 
 distinguish it from the Pallid Cuckoo (Cuculus pallidus), which was known 
 as the Greater Cuckoo. It must also have been a common bird known to 
 collectors, for it had been described under eight different scientific names at 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 "THE BRONZE CUCKOO." 
 
 Chalcococcyx (Lainprococcyx) plagosus. 
 Young, male and female. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " FAN-TAILED CUCKOO." 
 
 Cacomantis flabelliformis, Latham. 
 
- 
 
 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 31 
 
 the time when Gould published his handbook. This cuckoo is a migratory 
 species in the southern portion of Australia ; it arrives in Tasmania in Sep- 
 tember, returning to the mainland in the following January. Like all the 
 members of the group, it is a solitary bird of a retiring nature. It does not 
 come much into the open country, and if it were not for its loud call-note it 
 would easily escape observation. 
 
 Campbell gives a list of eighteen different birds in whose nests the white 
 freckled egg of this cuckoo has been collected, and they include tits, wrens,, 
 honey-eaters, robins, wood-swallows, and rock- war biers, most of which form 
 domed or covered nests. Two different species of cuckoos have been recorded 
 as laying their eggs in the same tit's nest. For a long time the naturalists 
 were unable to decide how the cuckoo managed to lay her egg in such a small 
 nest as that which she usually selected. Careful field observations have 
 proved that after laying her egg upon the grass, the cuckoo watches her 
 opportunity when the mother bird leaves her nest, to cuddle her egg up 
 between the bill and the breast, and flying upward push it into the freshly 
 built nest. Why such birds acquired these lazy parasitic habits it is very 
 hard to understand, especially as we have in the Coucal a closely related 
 bird that builds a large nest of her own and rears her own nestlings. Among 
 the remarkable cuckoos is the Channel-bill (Scythrops novce-hollandice), a, 
 large bird ranging all over Australia to Tasmania, and also found in New 
 Guinea. She adopts the crow, and some of the larger shrikes, as foster- 
 mothers for her offspring. 
 
 / 
 
 The Blue Wren (Malurus cyaneus Ellis). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 317, No. 185 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 144, No. 30. 
 
 Though this dainty little bird has been long known under the name of 
 Malurus cyaneus, in Leach's book the specific name of Cyanochlamys is attached 
 to it. This seems a great pity, for Leach's book was primarily intended for 
 bird lovers and school children, and its author raight have used the old name 
 of Cyaneus, even if not quite the latest in modern classification. 
 
 It was figured and described in White's "Voyage to New South Wales " 
 as the Superb-warbler. This name still sticks to it, though it has been 
 gradually superseded by the more popular one of Blue Wren, which I hope 
 in time to see universally adopted by the children of Australia, instead 
 of Cocktail a name by which it is often known in New South Wales, but 
 which has nothing to recommend it in comparison with our typical and 
 euphonious preference. Dr. Bennett, in his " Gatherings of a Naturalist in 
 Australia" (1860), calls it the Purple- warbler, but I have not seen this most 
 unsuitable name repeated by modern writers. It is certainly not a purple 
 wren. 
 
 The wrens are well represented in Australia by sixteen species. They 
 comprise some of our most beautiful little birds, usually moving about in 
 small communities, and being found in all classes of country, from our 
 
32 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 suburban gardens to the far western scrubs ; indeed, wherever there is water, 
 one or more species may be found. The best place to study the Blue Wren is 
 in a sheltered suburban garden ; here a day seldom passes without a little 
 family flitting and creeping along through the trellis and shrubs, and hopping 
 over the lawns in search of tiny moths, aphids, scale, and the many forms of 
 soft-bodied insects that infest our garden plants. The difference in colour of 
 the brilliant blue and black adult cock bird, the dull-coloured female, and the 
 young birds, is well denned. For a short time, when he is moulting, the 
 -cock bird loses much of his showy appearance, but it is regained with his 
 new coat. It is a well-established fact that the cock Blue Wren is a feathered 
 mormon, and entertains a retinue of wives. 
 
 The nest of the Blue Wren is dome-shaped, with a small rounded hole on 
 its side. It is usually composed of grass lined with hair, bits of wool, or 
 feathers, and is placed in a low bush or tuft of grass. The eggs, usually four 
 in number, are a delicate pink, and are banded on the larger end with 
 reddish-brown spots. 
 
 The Yellow-rumped Tit (Acmthiza chrysorrhoa). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 374, No. 229; Leach's Bird Book, p. 143, No. 293. 
 The Yellow-rumped Tit is a typical representative of the genus 
 Acanthiza, which contains twelve species peculiar to Australia. It is known 
 as the Tomtit to many school children, but in Tasmania is popularly known 
 as the Yellow-tail. It ranges over the greater part of Australia, usually 
 going in small flocks, flying low, and giving a low chirping cry. 
 
 This little bird has the remarkable habit of constructing a double house, 
 for on the top of its somewhat loosely woven oval structure it builds a 
 circular rimmed dish like a second shallow nest. Naturalists have never 
 .given any satisfactory reason for this peculiar departure from the usual oval 
 nest, but it has been suggested that it is a resting-place for the male bird, 
 and perhaps for the mother bird when off" duty. 
 
 The eggs, usually four in n>umber, are somewhat elongate, pure-white, but 
 sometimes slightly spotted. Campbell and other observers have recorded 
 that these little birds have the curious habit of frequently building their nests 
 beneath the larger nests of magpies, crows, and hawks. The little Bronze 
 Ouckoo often imposes her eggs upon the Tomtit, and selects her comfortable 
 nest as the home for her parasitic fledgling. These dainty little birds, 
 though insignificant in size, are plentiful in gardens where they are not 
 molested. As they are always at work, they must save a very large number 
 of flowering plants from the smaller plant-infesting insects. 
 
 This is the same bird as that referred to as the " Yellow-rumped Thorn- 
 bill " (Geobasileus chrysorrhous) in the list of birds protected in New South 
 Wales, referred to on page 29 of the Agricultural Gazette, January, 1915. 
 

 About one-half natural sue. 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 " YELLOW=RUMPED TIT." 
 
 A can tli iza ch rysorrJi oa. 
 

INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " WHITE-BROWED WOOD SWALLOW." 
 
 Artamus superciliosus, Gould. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 33 
 
 White-browed Wood-swallow (Artamus superciliosus Gould). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 152, No. 79 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 147, No. 311. 
 
 The early naturalists considered that the wood-swallows were related to 
 the thrushes, and Latham called our commonest species the Sordid-thrush. 
 Jerdon, studying the Indian forms, characterised them as swallow-shrikes ; 
 but the popular name, wood-swallow, adopted by Gould, seems to define them 
 more accurately for the bush naturalist, and has been universally adopted in 
 Australia. These birds are also known locally as Blue-martins or Blue- 
 birds, though they are not related to either the swallow or the martin, and 
 only resemble them in their active gregarious habits, often congregating in 
 immense flocks before they separate to nest. The home of the members of 
 the genus Artamus is India, the Malay Archipelago, Australia, and the 
 Pacific Islands. Nine species are described from Australia ; some of these 
 remain on the continent all the year round, while others are migratory in 
 their habits, crossing over to New Guinea before the winter sets in, and 
 returning to us at the fall of the year. On this account this and other species 
 are also popularly known as Summer-birds, coming southward into New South 
 Wales and Victoria, where they settle down and nest in November and 
 December. 
 
 The species now described is one of the most elegant in form and colora- 
 tion of all the family. It is closely related to the more common wood- 
 swallow, Artamus sordidus ; the latter is also about the size of a sparrow, but 
 the whole of the plumage of its body is grey, it lacks the white brow and 
 rich chestnut breast of the former, and its wings and tail are bluish-black. 
 Though so distinctive in coloration and markings, naturalists consider these 
 two species closely allied, for they often mingle together in flocks and 
 nest in the same trees, while there are several authentic records of them 
 mating together. 
 
 As insect destroyers, the wood-swallows play a very important part in 
 keeping in check (and in some cases completely destroying) the armies of 
 cut-worms and swarms of locusts (grasshoppers) that so often infest crops and 
 grass in early summer. In the spring of 1919 in the Hunter River district, 
 numbers of locusts swarmed out in the paddocks, but thousands of wood- 
 swallows arrived from the north and attacked the locusts while in the hopper 
 stage so vigorously that scarcely an insect escaped to reach the perfect flying 
 stage. I visited the district at the end of November, 1919, and found the 
 birds nesting all round the vineyards in the low scrub, each nest with its 
 complement of well-feathered nestlings. 
 
 Both the White-browed and the Sordid Wood-swallows range all over 
 eastern, southern, and north-western Australia ; and though migratory as a 
 general rule, odd specimens may be found well south all the year round. 
 They are not very particular about their nests, and often take possession of 
 the deserted nests of other birds such as the Magpie-lark, re-lining their 
 t 97615 B 
 
34 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 second-hand homes with fresh feathers and grass. Their own nests are 
 loosely constructed with small twigs, fibrous roots and grass, and are placed 
 in a very haphazard way in the fork of a low bush or gum sapling. The 
 eggs are white, spotted and marked with brown, and vary from two to six 
 in number. 
 
 Masked Wood-swallow (Artamus personatus). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 150, No. 78 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 147, No. 312. 
 
 The Masked Wood-swallow is recorded from all parts of Australia, except 
 the far west and the Northern Territory ; it usually appears in small flocks 
 towards the early part of October to nest in New South Wales. It is a very 
 active bird and is usually seen in flocks that are small compared with those 
 of the last-described species, darting in and out among the trees, with the flight 
 of a swallow and the squeaky chirp of a sparrow. At night, when roosting on a 
 bare branch, these birds have the curious habit possessed by some of the 
 finches, of resting close together in a row, their black throats and light- 
 coloured bodies forming a marked contrast in the bunch. 
 
 The nest of this wood-swallow is a very poorly constructed affair, chiefly 
 composed of grass, loosely woven together, stuck in the fork of a branch, 
 *dth hardly any attempt at concealment. The clutch consists of from two 
 to three white eggs, spotted and splashed with brown. An insectivorous 
 bird, the Masked Wood-swallow plays a useful part in the garden, paddock, 
 and the forest. Bee-farmers sometimes complain that wood-swallows and 
 this species in particular are finding out that the domestic honey-bees are 
 good food and are easily caught ; and it is easily understood how much 
 damage can be done by the advent of a flock of wood-swallows among the 
 slow-flying bees. If a few are shot, however, they will soon move on, and 
 their usefulness much outweighs the effect of their bad habit. 
 
 The Red-capped Robin (Petroeca ^oodenovii Vig. and Horsf.). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 280, No. 166 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 123, No. 248. 
 This is one of the smallest and most beautiful robin red-breasts, and has 
 sweet song notes like that of the English robin ; it has a wide distribution, 
 being found all over Australia, except in the far north. It frequents open 
 forest and lightly timbered plains, and is just as much at home in the garden 
 as in the mallee gum scrub or the open glades of the interior. Wherever 
 there is bright sunlight and water you may meet this robin. 
 
 There are seven species of robins listed in the genus Petroeca, and all have 
 similar nesting habits. They are truly insectivorous, living chiefly upon small 
 moths, flies, and other insects that they frequently capture on the wing. The 
 dull-coloured females of several species are common residents of our gardens, 
 where they become very tame. From the vantage point ot fence or tree 
 
Slightly less than half-size. 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 "THE MASKED WOOD-SWALLOW." 
 
 Artamus personattts. 
 

 INSECTIVOROUS Bums or NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 44 SCARLET=BREASTED ROBIN." 
 
 PETPiCECA LEGGII, Sharpe. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 35 
 
 they scan the neighbourhood for flitting moth or creeping insect, returning 
 after each successful dart to their observation post to flirt their tails in 
 characteristic robin fashion. This bird forms a typical dainty cup- 
 shaped nest of soft bark and grass, lined with fur, feathers, wool, or hair. 
 When firmly fixed in the fork of a tree and coated on the outside with 
 spiders' web, bits of bark, and lichens, it blends with the surrounding stems 
 in a perfect outline. The eggs are round, pale green, and finely spotted 
 round the apex with brown ; they vary in number from two to four. 
 
 The Scarlet-breasted Robin (Petrceca leggii Sharpe). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 279, No. 165 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 122, No. 244. 
 
 The scarlet-breasted Robin is common in Tasmania, and extends its range 
 over the greater part of the eastern and southern portion of the mainland, 
 but is not found in Western Australia or northern Queensland. It is an 
 attractive little red-breast with the whole of the upper surface and head 
 black, except for a white patch on the forehead and bands of the same colour 
 on the wings ; its breast is a rich red, and from the quality of this colour 
 and by its large white top-knot this species is easily distinguished from the 
 other two illustrated. It makes a cup-shaped nest of scraps of bark bound 
 up with other fibre, matted together with spiders' web and lined with soft 
 bark, fur, or feathers" in the fern-tree gullies of Gippsland with the soft 
 downy fibre from the fern trees," says North. The nest is placed in a cleft 
 in a tree, and contains three or four light greenish-white eggs spotted and 
 speckled (thickest on the upper half) with brown and grey. This robin is 
 said to rear two and sometimes three broods in the year. 
 
 The species is described under the name of Petrceca multicolor Vig. and 
 Horsf ., in Gould's Handbook, but is now known under the specific name of 
 P. leggii, Sharpe. Lew in called it the Red-breasted Warbler. Gould says, 
 " Its song and call-note much resemble that of the European robin, but are 
 more feeble and uttered with a more inward tone." 
 
 The Flame-breasted Robin (Petrceca phcenica Gould). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 232, No. 167 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 123, No. 245. 
 
 This species has a similar range to that of the Scarlet-breasted Robin. 
 In the breeding season, says Campbell, it is more abundant in Tasmania and 
 the islands in Bass Straits than on the mainland. Its favourite haunts are 
 open valleys and mountain gullies. It builds the typical cup-shaped nest of 
 the robins, composed of grass and fine roots, lined inside, and coated on the 
 outside with spiders' web and bits of lichen and bark. The nest may be 
 placed in the cleft of a rock, on the bank of a creek, or a hollow or depression 
 in a tree stem. The clutch of eggs, three or sometimes four, are greenish- white, 
 and spotted or blotched with brown or grey. 
 
36 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 The Miner or Soldier-bird (Myzantha garmla Vig. and Horsf.). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 574, No. 353 ; Leach'e Bird Book, p. 173, No. 173. 
 
 This well-known honey-eater ranges all over Tasmania, Victoria, South 
 Australia, New South Wales, and south-eastern Queensland ; there are several 
 other allied species with a more restricted habitat in the west, the interior, 
 and northern Queensland. Wherever there are open eucalyptus trees 
 growing you will find this noisy bird, popularly known as the Australian 
 Miner, to distinguish him from the very different Indian Minah, which is 
 somewhat of a house pest in some of our towns. It has a host of popular 
 names, such as the Squeaker, Micky, Snake-bird, and Cherry-picker. I have 
 also heard it called Cockney in Victoria from the fact that it usually fights 
 in mobs. 
 
 Under natural conditions the Soldier-bird is very fearless and friendly, and 
 will come round the camp to pick up scraps and even enter a house or fly 
 into a tent. These birds are great fighters, and if one of their number gets- 
 into trouble his loud cries soon bring his comrades to his assistance. I 
 recall hearing a great commotion among the Miners in my garden, and 
 discovering the cat standing on one on a fence post ; the bird wa& 
 putting up a great fight, while about a dozen more were darting round,, 
 screaming and snapping at the cat's head. Unable to stand the stress of 
 battle the cat released its victim and retreated under the house. On another 
 occasion a small hawk was observed in the cat's predicament ; it finally 
 dropped the fighting Miner, though the latter lost half his feathers before 
 he escaped. 
 
 Like a number of the other honey-eaters (MeliphagidcB), the Miner 
 having its brush-tipped tongue so admirably adapted for sucking up nectar 
 from bush flowers discovered it to be also very serviceable for feeding upon 
 ripe fruit. Consequently it is often an orchard pest. Indeed, remembering 
 the damage done by it in country gardens (particularly among the ripe grapes) 
 the reader might debate its right to a place in our best of useful birds. It 
 is one of the few birds, however, that feed both on blow-flies about the bush 
 and upon their maggots when crawling out of a carcase. Miners often enter 
 an open tent to snap up blow-flies buzzing on the loof. At Warrah Experi- 
 ment Station one of these birds regularly takes up his station on the top of 
 one of our fly traps, catching the hovering flies and picking on the gauze top 
 at those imprisoned beneath. In the vicinity of a camp, Miners become 
 cosmopolitan in their tastes, and will eat bread or meat and not neglect the 
 carelessly left jam jar. 
 
 This bird is so universally known that it needs no close description. It& 
 slate-grey plumage, marked on the head with black, makes its easily recognised, 
 while the bare yellow spaces below the eyes, making it look as if it were 
 blind, is a noticeable mark of identification. Its nest (usually placed in the 
 fork of a small or medium-sized gum-tree) is a neatly made, open, cup-shaped 
 structure, composed of grass and twigs, and lined with wool, hair, or feathers. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 
 
 44 FLAME-BREASTED ROBIN." 
 
 PETRCECA PHCENICEA, Gould. 
 

INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 "LAUGHING JACKASS." 
 
 Dacelo gig as, Bodd. 
 

SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 37 
 
 The eggs, four in number, are bluish-white, marked all over with reddish- 
 brown dots. The Miner thrives under domestic conditions, and is a popular 
 bird despite its depredations in the fruit season. 
 
 Laughing-jackass (Dacelo gigas Boddart). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 122, No, 60 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 105, No. 221. 
 
 The members of the genus Dacelo comprise soraxe of the largest known 
 specimens of the family. They are quite unlike the smaller and more typical 
 kingfishers which are always found along the banks o creeks and rivers 
 and (as their name implies) capture small fish. The Laughing-jackass knows 
 little or nothing about fishing, and lives in the dry open forest country, 
 often miles away from the water. As it feeds upon small mammals, young 
 birds, lizards, earthworms, grubs, and earth-haunting insects, with an 
 occasional small snake, it requires very little water. Gould says " I believe 
 water is not essential to their existence, and that they seldom or never drink." 
 It is rather curious that this bird is not found in Tasmania, where there is 
 so much forest country similar to that on the mainland. It is not indigenous 
 to Western Australia, but it was introduced there some years ago and is 
 no\v well established. 
 
 There are three well-defined species of this genus peculiar to Australia. 
 The Laughing- jackass (ranging from South Australia, Victoria, New South 
 Wales and through the southern half of Queensland) gives place northward to 
 Leach's Kingfisher (Dacelo leachi), which is slightly larger, has blue on the back 
 and wings, is much more brilliantly coloured, and may be regarded as a 
 tropical form of our first species. In this bird we have the phenomenon of a 
 Laughing- jackass that cannot laugh, for its discordant note is far more of a bark. 
 The third species, now often called a variety of Leach's Kingfisher, is the 
 Fawn-breasted Kingfisher (Dacelo cervina), described by Gould under the 
 name of Dacelo occidentalis. It is somewhat smaller than Leach's Kingfisher, 
 frequents the tops of the tallest trees, and has a very discordant voice. It 
 extends its range beyond that of Leach's Kingfisher, through the Northern 
 Territory into Western Australia. 
 
 Of the many travellers and naturalists who have written about the 
 Australian bush, none forget to make mention of the Laughing-jackass. It 
 was described and figured in White's " Voyage to New South Wales " in 
 1790, under the name Great Brown Kingfisher, but the early pioneers' 
 association of the bird's call with the "hee-haw" of the domestic donkey, 
 made its more popular christening inevitable. Hence though scientifically 
 the Great Brown Kingfisher, and alternatively, the Kookaburra and Settlers' 
 Clock (on account of its noisiness at daylight and dark), our jovial friend is 
 likely to remain the Laughing-jackass to the good Australian on the land. 
 
 There are few places in our bush where one can camp without hearing the call 
 of the Laughing- jackass at dawn and evening. In the evening in particular 
 they have a habit of gathering together in a little family party of half-a- 
 dozen or more, when they relate the experiences of the day in chuckles and 
 laughs that almost appear intelligible to the meditative bushman. 
 
38 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 Civilisation appears to agree with the Laughing- jackass, as it does with 
 the magpies, and in the suburbs of Sydney it is commonly seen in a semi- 
 domesticated state, frequently visiting our gardens, or resting on our 
 chimney tops. The value of the Laughing-jackass as a deadly enemy of all 
 snakes is somewhat mythical. He certainly snaps up a small snake now and 
 then as a side-line, as it were ; but his chief value is as a destroyer of mice, 
 ground grubs, and other insects. He has certain bad habits. Like the Butcher- 
 bird, he will gobble up small nestlings in his native haunts, and, given the 
 opportunity, will make no bones about selecting a plump chick or duckling 
 when its mother is off guard. I remember an .old shepherd on the Murray 
 who had a pet Jackass and a clutch of young ducks, which every day on 
 his return to the hut counted one short. He accused everybody but the 
 true culprit of responsibility for his loss, until one day he caught Master 
 Jackass finishing one of the last of the surviving ducklings, and the mystery 
 was explained. 
 
 The jackass makes no true nest, but selecting a hollow spout in the limb 
 of a gum-tree, lays her two or three rounded white eggs on the decayed 
 wood placed together so carelessly that it is not an uncommon thing for her 
 to accidentally tumble one out on the ground on entering or leaving the 
 opening into the stem. Occasionally one lays her eggs in a hole excavated 
 in the side of a white ant (termite) nest. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 39 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Birds of the Forests and Brushes. 
 
 The birds grouped under this section are those met with in the coastal 
 forests (which are chiefly of eucalyptus, acacia, and casuarina, with other 
 more shrubby trees as undergrowth), though we must also include the 
 Hawkesbury sandstone and similar areas on the mountain ranges. The 
 brushes, which are confined to the coastal districts and the Dividing Range, 
 vary considerably from the fern-tree gullies of Gippsland, the cedar brushes 
 of New South Wales, the tropical jungles or " rain forests " of Queensland, 
 to the tropical forests of Cairns (which are almost equal in luxuriance of 
 growth to those of Brazil). Some of the birds named hereunder sometimes 
 stray into gardens and cultivated areas in search of food ; but they do not 
 make their homes there or become semi-domesticated like those of the first 
 section. Others are to be found in the area covered by our third section. 
 
 The following are the birds dealt with under Section II : 
 
 Coach- whip Bird (Psophodes 
 
 crepitans). 
 
 Brush-turkey (Talegallus lathami). 
 Lyre-bird (Menura superba). 
 Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus 
 
 funereus). 
 
 Dollar-bird (Eurystomus australis). 
 More-pork (Podargus strigoides). 
 
 Delicate Owl (btrix delicatula). 
 
 Boobook Owl (Ninox boobook). 
 Australian Bee-eater (Merops 
 
 ornatus}. 
 White-throated Nightjar 
 
 (Eurostopus albigularis). 
 Harmonious Thrush (Collyriocincla 
 harmonica). 
 Yellow-breasted Thickhead 
 
 (Pachycephala gutturalis). 
 Crested Shrike-tit (Falcunculus 
 
 frontatus). 
 
 Short-billed Tree-tit (Smicornis 
 
 brevirostris). 
 Mountain Thrush (Creocincla 
 
 lunulata). 
 Spotted Ground-bird (Cinclosoma 
 
 punctatum). 
 Spotted Diamond-bird (Pardalotus 
 
 punctatus). 
 
 Mistletoe-bird (Dicceum 
 
 hirnndinaceum). 
 
 Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike or 
 
 Blue Jay (Coracina robusta). 
 
 White-shouldered Caterpillar-eater 
 
 (Lalage tricolor'). 
 Hooded Robin (Petrceca bicolor). 
 Yellow-breasted Robin (Eopsaltria 
 australis). 
 Pheasant-coucal (Centropus 
 
 phasianus). 
 Orange-backed Wren (Malurus 
 
 melanocephalus). 
 
40 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 The Coach -whip Bird (Psophodes crepitans Latham). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. 1 p. 312, No 182 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 129, No. 272. 
 
 This is one of the birds that live in the shelter of the tangled brush of our 
 coastal scrub ranging all along the eastern coast from Victoria, through New 
 South Wales into Queensland. In such localities the Coach- whip Bird is at 
 home ; but it seldom comes out in the open or far from protection. 
 
 This bird takes its popular name from its remarkable notes. Forcing one's 
 way through tangled grass and brush, and among dead logs and fallen trees, 
 one is arrested by a series of low clear notes, followed by a loud sharp one, 
 exactly like the crack of a whip. It is the call of the male bird to his mate, 
 she answering with a more gentle note the moment he stops. If one wishes 
 to observe the birds, he must remain quietly in any open glade in the forest, 
 and before long he will see one or two medium-sized, blackish, or dark olive- 
 green birds, with a distinct white patch on either side of the neck, feathers 
 on the top of the head raised into a slight crest and a very noticeable long 
 and rather broad tail. They hop about over the scrub, jumping up on to 
 logs or fallen trees, and scratching up the soil in search of insects, snails, and 
 other small game, and will come quite close to the intruder into their domain, 
 watching him alertly with bright bead-like eyes, and ready to fly if he should 
 be dangerous. 
 
 The Coach-whip Bird builds a loosely-constructed nest of fresh twigs ; a 
 favourite situation in the Sydney scrub is a Bursaria bush, while in the 
 Queensland forest she favours a clump of lawyer palm. The eggs, two in 
 number, are oval in shape and glossy ; their colour is greenish- white, blotched 
 and marked with dark-brown and light-grey lines in fantastic patterns. In 
 captivity the Coach-whip Bird will eat meat, and I was told by a dealer that 
 he had one that killed a mouse which entered its cage. 
 
 The Brush-turkey or Wattled Talegallus [Talegallus (Catheturus) lathami 
 
 GoulcP. 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 150, No. 476. 
 
 This species of megapode is not unlike a small turkey, with its bare head, 
 yellow and blue wattles, stiff wing and tail feathers, and stout legs. When, 
 however, the first specimens were sent to Europe, it was described by Latham 
 as the New Holland Vulture, under the impression that it was allied to 
 the Turkey-buzzard or Carrion- vulture of America and the West Indies. It 
 occupies the semi-tropical forests along the eastern coastal mountains, and in 
 the early days of settlement was an inhabitant of the Illawarra brushes ; and 
 though still found in our northern scrubs, is more common in Queensland, 
 right up into Cape York and round to the north coast. 
 
 In this case the male Scrub-turkey does all the building of the mound nest, 
 which is chiefly composed of earth mould and dead leaves scraped up into a 
 conical mound, about 2J to 4 feet in height, and 12 feet in diameter at the 
 base. When the male bird has finished the building up of the fresh mound, 
 
I 
 
 " 
 
About one-sixth natural size. 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF XEW SOUTH WALES. 
 "LYRE BIRD." 
 
 Menura superba. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIEDS. 41 
 
 often constructed on the site of last year's nest, the female comes round to 
 lay, scratching a hole in the summit of the mound about a foot in depth, into 
 which she crawls to lay her egg. As soon as the egg is laid, the male bird 
 appears and drives the female away, afterwards fixing the egg in an upright 
 position, filling up the hole, trampling down the leaves and mould, and 
 smoothing down the surface in a most business-like manner. From twelve 
 to fifteen large, white, fragile, granulated eggs are placed in an irregular 
 pattern at a depth of about a foot, in the top of the mound, and when the 
 chick bursts its shell it soon scratches its way up to the surface (without any 
 outside assistance from the parent birds), an active little creature, quite able 
 to look after itself. Sometimes the one mound may be used by two or three 
 pairs of Scrub-turkeys, when it may contain as many as thirty-five eggs in all 
 stages of incubation. 
 
 Like the Mallee-hen, these birds, from their scratching habits, find many 
 ground insects, snails, and slugs, and a bird- the size of a small turkey can 
 account for a great number of insects every day. 
 
 The Lyre-bird (Menura superba Davies). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 298, No. 179 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 112, No. 237. 
 
 Three distinct species of Lyre-birds inhabit the coastal forests of eastern 
 Australia the Victorian Lyre-bird in Gippsland, the above species, peculiar 
 to New South Wales, and the Albert Lyre-bird, which is restricted to the 
 northern river scrubs of New South Wales and southern Queensland, and 
 ranges only as far north as Wide Bay. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that these birds are not represented in the rich 
 tropical forests in the north. No bird attracted more attention than our 
 Lyre-bird when first brought under the notice of naturalists. On account of 
 its wonderful tail it was first classed among the Birds of Paradise, then 
 because of its size and powerful scratching feet it was considered to be a- 
 gallinaceous bird ; finally, from the study of its anatomy, it was shown to be 
 a perching bird allied to the thrushes. The three species are now placed in 
 the family Menuridce. 
 
 The original native name of the Lyre-bird was Buln-buln, on account 
 of its usual call-note. The early settlers called it. in different localities the 
 Mountain-pheasant, the Native Wood-pheasant, or simply the Pheasant, 
 because of its coloration ; in other places it was known as the Mocking- 
 bird, in reference to its capacity for mimicking all the voices of the bush, 
 but its present and most characteristic popular name is the Lyre-bird, in 
 allusion to its wonderful tail, \\ 7 hich is shaped like a Greek lyre. Many 
 curious pictures were drawn, and accounts written about the Lyre-birds by 
 travellers in the early days. One said that the male used to stand with its 
 outspread tail turned to the morning breeze and create sweet music by 
 allowing the wind to blow through the stiff feathers, like an ^Eolian harp. 
 Margaret Catchpole says : " The most beautiful attitude that I once saw the 
 
42 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 male Lyre-bird in beats anything I ever beheld of what men call politeness. 
 I have heard and read of delicate attentions paid to our sex by men of noble 
 and generous dispositions, but I scarcely ever heard of such delicate attention 
 as I one day witnessed in this noble bird towards its mate. I saw her 
 sitting in the heat of the meridian sun upon her nest, and the cock bird 
 sitting near her with his tail expanded like a bower overshadowing her ; and 
 as the sun moved, so did he turn his elegant parasol to guard her from its 
 rays. Now and then he turned his bright eye to see if she were comfortable, 
 and she answered his inquiry with a gentle note and rustle of her feathers." 
 
 Baron Cuvier, writing in 1859, says : "They are said to sing for a couple 
 of hours in the morning, beginning when they quit the valleys till they attain 
 the summit of a hill, where they scrape together a small hillock as they 
 exhume the grubs on which they feed ; on this they afterwards stand, with 
 the tail spread over them, and in this situation imitate the notes of every 
 bird within hearing, till after a while they return to the low ground." 
 
 John Gould studied the Lyre-birds and gave us the first reliable account 
 of their habits in his "Birds of Australia," published in 1848, and after- 
 wards in several papers sent to the Zoological Society of London. 
 
 Though differing in plumage and coloration, the three species appear to 
 have identical habits, and all destroy large numbers of more or less 
 destructive grubs, snails, and other forest pests. The life-history of Menura 
 superba, the most handsome of the three forms, applies equally to the other 
 two. It is the size of a small fowl ; the upper surface is of a uniform, dull, 
 brownish-black colour, and the under surface is lighter and silvery under the 
 tail. It is this unique tail that has been the cause of its undoing. In the 
 earliest days of settlement, " the blackfellows prized it for an ornament, as 
 well as the Europeans, who gave a great price for it." (Russell, 1839.) In 
 1861, Wheelwright, speaking of the Dandenong and Plenty Ranges in 
 Victoria, says: "The blacks make periodical excursions up into the ranges 
 about September when the birds are full feathered, and come back laden 
 with tails." Regarding the destruction of Lyre-birds for their tails, 
 I remember seeing them sold in the streets of Sydney, about 1888, for 
 half-a-crown a pair, but Mr. Aflalo's story ("A Sketch of the Natural 
 History of Australia," 1896), of two brothers in Sydney employing a number 
 of men to shoot these birds, and obtaining 500 dozen tails in a few weeks, 
 seems to be somewhat exaggerated. 
 
 The Lyre-bird is a very active crea'ture, and in spite of its size is seldom 
 seen, though often heard by the wanderer who invades its haunts. When 
 suddenly startled it has the curious habit of jumping upward into the 
 branches of a tree and there stopping. The tail hunters learnt this habit, 
 and with trained dogs soon " treed " the bird and shot it before it reached 
 the top. The nest is a large affair constructed at the base of a tree, often 
 hidden among tree ferns, and containing a single dark-brown blotched 
 egg. The nestling is a ball of brown fluff " all claws and beak," as a 
 
. . 
 
 Approximately one-quarter natural size. 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 " THE BLACK COCKATOO." 
 
 Calyptorhynchus funereus. 
 

SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 43 
 
 surveyor friend of mine described a half-fledged one that he tumbled across. 
 It had rolled out of its nest among the ferns, and fought like a cat when he 
 tried to pick it up. 
 
 It is interesting to note that the mocking-birds of North America are 
 thrushes, and that our Lyre-birds are allied to the same family. They are well 
 known for their powers, not only of imitating other birds in the bush, but 
 also of copying such sounds as the sharpening of a saw, the chopping of an 
 axe, or the bark of a dog. 
 
 With well-enforced protection against tail-hunters, there is no doubt that 
 the Lyre-birds would soon increase and multiply in their forest surroundings 
 but for the fact that the fox has entered into their domain, and this deadly 
 enemy of all ground-nesting birds finds the nesting Lyre-bird and the baby 
 nestling easy prey. If, however, the Lyre-bird learns from this new 
 experience to build her nest in the fork of a tree well off the ground, as some 
 observers say she is doing, she may still hold her own in the scrub and fern- 
 tree gullies. A movement has been put on foot to capture a number of 
 Lyre-birds and turn them out in the fern-tree gullies on the slopes of Mount 
 Wellington in Tasmania, where there are no foxes, in order to save the 
 species from extinction, and to add to the charm of the Tasmanian bush. 
 
 Through the kindness of a naturalist friend who, wandering through the 
 scrub at the back of Narrabeen Lake, had flushed a Lyre-bird off her nest, 
 I was able to make some careful observations of the nest and nestling. The 
 nest was built on the top of a shoulder-high cliff in a patch of bracken fern, 
 and it was quite a solid affair of sticks and fern leaves. The young bird 
 was thickly covered with dark down. The moment one looked into the nest 
 it gave an angry, frightened shriek, and fluffed itself up in the open nest 
 facing the visitors. The mother bird came flying up, but seeing us, she 
 dropped to the ground about ten yards away, and sheltered in the scrub. 
 The young bird every now and then gave his harsh cry, and the mother, after 
 a little while, came round the nest well into view. As long as we remained 
 quiet she did not seem very frightened. 
 
 The Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus Shaw). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 20, No. 401 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 89, No. 138. 
 Though there are only five species of Black Cockatoos found in the whole of 
 Australia, three of them are common in this State. The above species 
 (C. funereus), often known as the Yellow-eared Cockatoo, is the most common 
 and has the widest range, being, found in Tasmania, the islands in Bass > 
 Straits, through the coastal ranges of eastern and South Australia, and 
 sometimes even finding its way in search of honey blossoms and insects into 
 the more inland forests and mallee scrubs. Like all the members of the 
 cockatoo tribe, these birds nest in the holes or rotten branches of tall dead 
 gum-trees, in which the female lays two white eggs. Under ordinary 
 conditions they are true forest-haunting birds. Although their chief food 
 
44 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 supplies are the seeds and honey blossoms of our larger forest trees, they 
 play an important part in the economy of nature and the life of our forest 
 trees. 
 
 In Europe and America a large family of forest birds, popularly known as 
 woodpeckers, police the forests, and with their sharp-pointed beaks drill out 
 and destroy the thousands of wood-boring insects and their larvae that would 
 otherwise kill the trees. In Australia we have no representative of the 
 woodpeckers, but the Black Cockatoo with its powerful gnawing bill hunts 
 over the trunk and branches of infested trees and tears out great strips of 
 bark and wood, beneath which the wood-moth and beetle larvae are bur- 
 rowing and feeding. Mr. E. Palmer, of Lawson, once showed me the 
 stem of a gum-tree about 6 inches in diameter that had been cut right 
 through by a Black Cockatoo hunting out a wood-grub, and it is not an 
 uncommon thing to come across branches of wattles and gum-trees in the 
 valleys of the Blue Mountains torn and splintered in this manner where 
 the cockatoos have been at work. The black and silver wattles along our 
 coastal country are very much subject to the attacks of large white grubs, 
 the larvae of the goat-moths (Eudoxyla eucalypti). The branches and trunks 
 of these scrub trees as they mature are often full of these wood-borers, which 
 used to be sought after by our blackfellows in the old days. It is recorded 
 that the Black Cockatoos used to visit this country every season, and between 
 the two the wattles were more or less cleared of wood-borers before the 
 advent of the white man. 
 
 With increasing settlement these shy birds have been shot, or driven out 
 of their old haunts, and this is probably why many of our wattles are now 
 such short-lived trees. As one of our few forest rangers, the Black Cockatoo 
 should be most carefully protected. 
 
 The Dollar-bird (Eurystomus australis Swain). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 119, No. 59; Leach's Bird Book, p. 105, No. 219. 
 
 This bird is so widely known under the name of the Dollar-bird that I 
 adopt it in preference to that of the Australian Roller, though the latter may 
 be more exact. It belongs to a group of birds that are allied to the Kingfishers, 
 and it is our sole representative of a genus the members of which are scat- 
 tered over Africa, Madagascar, India, China, and the Malay Archipelago. 
 Many are migratory ; our species ranges from the Malay Islands and New 
 Guinea into New South Wales, where most of them nest. A few reach Yiof- 
 toria, but they are comparatively rare in the southern State. 
 
 The Dollar-bird is one of our showy, handsome birds, and it also attracts 
 one's attention by its chattering cry. It usually takes up its post of obser- 
 vation on the limb of a dead tree or on a telegraph post and from such a 
 position it watches for insects flying past and darts out with its curious rolling 
 flight, exhibiting at the same time the characteristic rounded white patch in 
 the centre of the wing from which mark it derives its name. The stomach of 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALKS. 
 
 " DOLLAR BIRD." 
 Eurystomus australis, Swainson. 
 

 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF XEW SOUTH "WALES. 
 
 "MORE-PORK." 
 
 Podargus strigoides, Lath. 
 
About one-half natural size. 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 " DELICATE OWL." 
 
 Stria delicatula. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 45 
 
 one of these birds has been found to contain two rose-chafer beetles, part of 
 a cicada, and other beetle remains ; but they also capture moths, though 
 Gould says that he found nothing but the remains of beetles in specimens he 
 dissected. 
 
 The Dollar-bird constructs no nest, but, like its cousin the Laughing-jackass, 
 deposits its eggs in a hole in a hollow limb, upon the decayed wood. The 
 eggs, four in number, are very round and pearly white. The birds nest from 
 September to December in New South Wales. 
 
 The More-pork (Podargus strigoides Latham). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 84 No. 40 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 104, No. 217. 
 
 This curious bird takes it popular name from the old idea that the noc- 
 turnal call of " more-pork " or " mopoke " was made by it, though the cry is 
 now known to be that of the Boobook-owl. The only sound I evet 
 heard the More-pork make was an angry grunt when disturbed in its mid 
 day sleep ; it is said, however, to repeat when flying, a feeble cry like " oom- 
 oom oom." 
 
 During the day, this bird, like the owl, sleeps in the shelter of a bush, and 
 her remarkable grey, white, and mottled-brown plumage blends into a won- 
 derful protective coloration. This is seen to perfection if you come upon one 
 nesting on the bole of a white gum, upon which she simply places a few 
 sticks, in such a primitive fashion that one wonders why the pair of pure- 
 white eggs do not tumble off whenever she moves. Sitting on her nest she 
 presses her body against the tree-stem, head and tail in line, so that in spite 
 of her size, you might pass close to her without recognising as a bird the ex- 
 crescence on the limb. Gould described eight species of More-pork (or Frog- 
 mouth, as some writers call them), but modern writers have decided that the 
 Tasmanian form (which Gould called Podargus curveri) is the same as our 
 common species. Three other species are found in different parts of Aus- 
 tralia. Our More-pork has a wide range over Tasmania and the whole of 
 Australia except the northern part of Western Australia. 
 
 The More-pork feeds upon the phasmids, mantis, leaf grasshoppers, and 
 cicadas which are found resting or moving among the foliage at night. In 
 my garden I had several young More-porks which used to rest on a flower-pot 
 with eyes closed. When a mouse was dangled in front of one of them, it 
 would open its great mouth, apparently let the mouse run down its throat, 
 shut its beak with a snap and go to sleep again. 
 
 The Delicate Owl (Strix delicatula Gould). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 66, No. 31 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 86, No. 179. 
 Owls are nocturnal birds of prey that usually sleep or hide during the 
 hours of daylight in thick brush, old ruins, rocky caves, or hollows of big 
 gum-trees. At twilight and all through the night they hunt for their food, 
 which consists chiefly of small mammals, birds, and the larger insects that 
 move about under cover of the dark hours. Most of their food is captured 
 
46 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 on the wing, and their whole structure is admirably adapted for the life they 
 lead. Their plumage is beautifully soft and loose, so that their flight^is- 
 almost noiseless ; their stout legs are furnished with large feet terminating 
 in powerful claws, so that they can snap up their prey as they fly over the 
 ground or through the trees ; their large heads are provided with round 
 projecting eyes, surrounded with a flattened disc of feathers that intensify 
 their vision, and the hawk-like hooked beaks are adapted for tearing their 
 prey to pieces. 
 
 There is some doubt as to which particular bird "was denned under this 
 name in the Scriptures, and though the translators from the Hebrew coupled 
 the owl with desolation, more modern students consider that such dissimilar 
 birds as the ostrich, pelican, and cormorant have been placed under the name 
 of the owl. Among the Greeks and Romans the owl was considered the 
 emblem of wisdom, and was sacred to Minerva, Goddess of Wisdom, Arts, 
 and War ; and, as Pallas Athene, it was the tutelary goddess of Athens. 
 
 The Delicate Owl is so closely related to the common European Barn Owl 
 (Strix flammea) that it is usually considered only a sub-species peculiar to 
 Australia, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, and New Guinea. It well deserves, 
 the name of Delicate Owl on account of its beautiful, soft, white breast, 
 feathers and dainty brown markings on the back and shoulders. It ranges 
 over all classes of country. I once caught one in the homestead stable 
 among the granite ranges of north-western Victoria ; it was quite blind, 
 and had wasted away to skin and bone from the grass-seeds that had become 
 embedded in its eyes. When on the Flinders River tablelands in northern 
 Queensland I remember them as plentiful, sleeping in the open weather-worn 
 cavities eaten out of the sides of the sandstone gorges. Explorers in central 
 Australia record them as common in the thick-foliaged mulga bushes in the 
 inland scrubs, and others have found them sleeping in hollow spouts in th& 
 limbs of big gum-trees along the river banks of the Northern Territory. 
 
 It is in this latter situation that they usually lay their eggs, six in number, 
 on the decayed wood on the bottom of the cavity in the limb ; the eggs are, 
 as with most owls, pure-white and very round. The European variety has 
 the curious habit of bringing up the nestlings in pairs. As soon as the first 
 pair of eggs are hatched, she deposits a second pair of eggs, which are hatched 
 in due course by the warmth of the bodies of the first clutch, and often a 
 third pair are hatched in this manner. Among the country folk in England 
 the Barn Owl is looked upon as an evil creature that peers through the 
 window of the sick-room, and its sudden boot at the dead of night warns one 
 of coming death. In some places they also believe that if one discovers a 
 resting owl, he can, by walking slowly round it, cause it to twist its head off, 
 as it keeps turning its head to watch the intruder. From their nocturnal 
 habits, soft soundless flight, and weird call-notes, the Barn Owls in the dark 
 ages were often associated with witches, who were supposed to assume the 
 garb of owls when flying about at night. Though to a certain extent a. 
 

 About one-third natural size. 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 " BOOBOOK OWL." 
 
 Ninox boobook. 
 

 Slightly less than half-size. 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 "THE AUSTRALIAN BEE=EATER." 
 
 M crops o mat us. 
 

 
 '' 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 47 
 
 destroyer of insects, it is as an active enemy of mice, rats, and all kinds of 
 small destructive rodents that this owl does so much valuable service to the 
 farmer. 
 
 The Boobook Owl (Ninox boobook Latham) 
 Gould Handbook, vol. I, p. 74, No. 36 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 85, No. 175. 
 
 This bird is also known as the Brown or Cuckoo-owl, and was described 
 in Gould's Handbook under the name of Athene Boobook. He says that the 
 native name of this owl was " Buck-buck," in reference to its call-note, but 
 the hoot of the Boobook Owl is " more-pork," sharp and distinct. It is 
 somewhat remarkable that the popular idea was, and still is in many places, 
 that the Frogmouth (Podargus curveri), another quaint night bird, was 
 responsible for the weird night-cry of " more-pork." 
 
 This owl is peculiar to Australia, with a very wide range over the country, 
 and is also recorded from Lord Howe Island. Though so noisy at night, 
 when driven out of its resting-place into the bright sunshine it utters no 
 sound, but, dazed by the unwelcome light, flutters away to more secure cover, 
 at the mercy of all the small birds in the neighbourhood that gather together 
 and hunt it away, looking upon it as a probable enemy. At twilight and 
 night-time the Boobook Owl is active and alert, floating along silently in 
 search of mice or small roosting birds, which it picks up in its powerful claws 
 as it flies past, and in the same way catches beetles and night-flying or 
 feeding insects. Gould states, and other writers have copied his statements, 
 that this owl feeds chiefly upon orthoptera (tree grasshoppers, phasmids, <fec.) 
 and neuroptera (lace-winged insects) ; but these are only a minor portion of 
 its food. Its chief value is as a hunter of mice, and when a pair of the birds 
 take up their quarters near the farmer's outhouses they should be carefully 
 encouraged to remain. I examined a large series of cast pellets voided by a 
 pair of these owls that had selected the hayshed at Wagga Experiment Farm 
 as their headquarters, and they consisted almost entirely of mouse fur and 
 bones, with here and there a few green feathers that suggested that a green 
 grass parrot had been caught napping. 
 
 The nesting habits are similar to those of the Delicate Owl, but the clutch 
 only comprises three eggs, round and white, resting on the decayed wood in 
 the bottom of the hollow limb. 
 
 The Bee- eater (Merops ornatus Latham). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, Vol. I, p. 117, No. 58 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 107, No. 224. 
 
 This handsome little bird belongs to an interesting family, not related to 
 any other of our birds, but allied to the Oriental Hoopoos, remarkable for 
 their crown of upright feathers. The members of the family Meropidce range 
 over southern Europe, Africa, and Asia, and the distinctive group to which 
 our species belongs contains seventeen species, distinguished from the other 
 bee-eaters by having the two central tail feathers elongated. 
 
 Our Bee-eater is found all over Australia, frequenting open forest country 
 and the timber along river banks and creeks. It can easily be distinguished 
 from other birds, when at rest or on the wing, by its slender black bill, 
 
48 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 delicate green plumage, orange and black markings upon head and throat, and 
 the projecting central tail feathers, which are very conspicuous when flying. 
 Usually perching upon the outstretched dead branch of a gum-tree or a tele- 
 graph line (if one is handy) it sits on guard, ready to pounce down and snap 
 up any insect flying past its post of observation. Though some writers 
 have specified particular groups of insects as its food, scarcely anything in the 
 insect line comes amiss, and its food is as varied as the insects of the district. 
 When insect-hunting on the summit of Mount Marmion, in north-west Aus- 
 tralia, I once aroused the interest of a pair of Bee-eaters, which followed me 
 round and snapped up every butterfly or moth that I disturbed from the 
 undergrowth but missed with my net. 
 
 The nesting habit of the birds are peculiar, for they make regular tunnels 
 with openings no bigger than a mouse hole, into steep river banks. These 
 tunnels are about a yard in length, and open out into little pockets, in which are 
 laid four or five pinkish-white eggs. As an active insectivorous^ bird and often 
 in sufficient numbers to make an effective onslaught upon many of our com- 
 mon insect pests, the Bee-eater may be placed in a prominent place in our list, 
 There is, however, another side to its activities, for, as its name implies, this 
 bird is very fond of honey bees, and in agricultural districts is not regarded 
 with favour. In the Tamworth district bee-keepers look upon the Bee eater 
 as a nuisance, if not a pest, and claim that it is very destructive to honey 
 bees, catching them as they come home to the hive. It is, however, when 
 the work of breeding queen bees is being carried out that this bird does the 
 most serious damage. The Apiarist at Hawkesbury Agricultural College 
 informed me that the losses there due to Bee-eaters are sometimes very serious. 
 A critical period is that just after the wedding flight, when the young queen 
 circles round as if taking her bearings, before turning for home. 
 
 Showing, however, how things tend to right themselves, there was an 
 account in a Victorian newspaper some years ago stating that bee-keepers had 
 welcomed the event of a flock of Bee-eaters into their district, because they 
 had destroyed the large dragon-flies, which had previously been hawking over 
 their bee-hives. Now, both dragon-flies and robber-flies (also bee-killers), 
 under normal conditions are among our most useful friendly insects, destroy- 
 ing noxious insects, such as mosquitos and other pest flies ; yet this time they 
 in turn were pests to the bee-keepers. 
 
 The White-throated Nightjar (Eurostopus albigularis Vig. & Horsf.). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 96, No. 48 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 107, No. 225. 
 There are two distinct species of this genus confined to Australia and 
 New Guinea. The first, which we figure, ranges over the open forest country 
 of South Australia and the whole of eastern Australia from Victoria to 
 Queensland, and across into New Guinea. The second, Eurostopus argus, 
 the Spotted Nightjar, was described by Gould under the name of Eurostopodus 
 guttatus, and extends from New South Wales all over Western Australia. 
 

 \ 
 
 fc H co- 
 
 li) 
 
 O " " 
 
 * H 
 
 i= "" R, 
 
 g K ^ 
 
 0^2 
 
 ' 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 44 GREY SHRIKE THRUSH." 
 
 Collyriocinda harmonica, Lnthn'.n. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " THICKHEAD." 
 Pachycephala gutturalis, Latham. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRAL7AN BIRDS. 49 
 
 These birds have very similar habits ; they rest on the ground during the 
 daytime and are most active at twilight and at dawn, when they capture all 
 kinds of night-flying insects on the \\ing. Their large black eyes and long 
 powerful wings are admirably adapted to their nocturnal habits. Though 
 the male and female are very similar in their markings, the plumage of the 
 latter is more brightly coloured, and she is slightly larger than her mate. 
 She constructs no nest, simply depositing her single, finely-spotted egg upon 
 the soil, sheltered by a tussock or log. 
 
 Several popular names (such as Moth-owl, Fern-owl, and the remarkable 
 one of Goatsucker) have been given to these birds by the rural population 
 of England. The bird known in North America under the popular name of 
 Whip-poor- Will is a nightjar. 
 
 The Harmonious Thrush (Collyriocincla harmonica Latham). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I. p. 220, No. 123 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 149, No. 315. 
 
 The Harmonious Thrush is a very typical representative of the shrike- 
 thrushes, of which Gould lists six species peculiar to Australia and Tasmania,, 
 each of which seems to have its own particular range. Our species i& 
 sometimes known as the Grey Shrike-thrush, and White, in his " Voyage to- 
 New South Wales," figured and described it under the name of the Port 
 Jackson Thrush, but its remarkably clear notes, taken in conjunction with 
 its thrush-like form and habits, entitle the name I have chosen to popularity. 
 
 This is a rather thick-set bird of a uniform greyish-brown tint, with the 
 under-surface lighter and face whitish, but its large bright eyes are its most 
 striking character. It has an extended range over the greater part of eastern 
 Australia from Queensland to Victoria and is scattered over South Australia. 
 Though usually met with hunting over the ground in forest country, it is 
 very often noticeable in the tree-planted streets of country towns, where it 
 will fearlessly fly down to the roadside to pick up incautious insects. Most 
 of its food consists of ground-living insects. Its deep, clear call-notes are 
 very distinctive, and by this means its resting-place can be easily located. 
 
 The nest is placed in any sheltered position situated on the bank of a 
 creek or watercourse in the brush, on the bole of a tree, or a ledge of rock. 
 It is cup- shaped, constructed from strips of bark, leaves, and fibrous roots 
 and usually contains three rounded pearly-white eggs, blotched and spotted 
 with olive and grey. 
 
 The Yellow-breasted Thickhead (Pachycephala guttumlis Latham). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 207, No. 113 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 151, No. 322. 
 The group to which this handsome species belongs contains a number of 
 birds known as thickheads. Leach calls the birds in this group, whistlers, 
 and considers the former name ill-choosen, but it seems to me wiser, until a 
 more definite name than whistler is chosen, to adhere to the old and well- 
 known group name first given. Even the popular name is not unanimously 
 used. In Campbell's "Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds" our thick- 
 
50 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 head is caUed the White-throated Thickhead, while Leach lists it as the 
 Golden-breasted Whistler. Among the earlier writers, Lewin named it 
 twice the Orange-breasted Thrush and the Black-crowned Thrush. Latham 
 dubbed it the Black-breasted Flycatcher and Shaw, in doubt, named ife 
 Motacitta dubia. 
 
 This is a forest-loving bird, living both in the open gum and wattle scrub, 
 and in the more dense coastal thickets and cedar brushes. It hunts for 
 insects among the branches and foliage and also upon the ground. All the 
 thickheads have much the same habits and are rather shy birds. They are 
 best observed by resting in the brush they frequent, and by keeping perfectly 
 quiet. Their call-notes are seven or eight low whistles ending in a sharp 
 crack, not unlike that of the true Coach-whip Bird, but easily distinguished 
 by one who has listened to the louder, shriller note of the latter. 
 
 The nest is a shallow, loosely-made, saucer-like structure, composed of dry 
 grass and rootlets, lined inside with feathers, and placed in the fork of a tree 
 a few feet from the ground. It contains three creamy-white to buff-coloured 
 eggs, which are ornamented with a band of brown and lilac spots round the 
 broadest end. 
 
 Crested Shrike-tit (Falcunculus frontatus Latham). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 228, No. 129 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 150, No. 320. 
 
 The genus to which this bird belongs contains two species peculiar to 
 Australia. This species ranges from Queensland through New South Wales 
 and Victoria into South Australia ; the second, the White-bellied Shrike-tit 
 (Falcunculus leucogaster) is confined to Western Australia. It is rather 
 remarkable that our species is not found in an island like Tasmania where 
 the great gum-tree forests in which it delights are so previlent. 
 
 This bird has gone under quite a number of popular names ; Campbell 
 calls it simply Shrike- tit ; Leach among others the Yellow-bellied or Yellow- 
 breasted Shrike-tit, Falcon-shrike, and Frontal-shrike. Gould says : "They 
 resemble the European tits and the Indian parras, and are also allied to the 
 Australian thickheads." The Crested Shrike-tit is found in the tangled 
 coastal brushes and the more open gum-tree forests. At a camp below 
 Hay, there were several that lived in the red gums along the river ; they 
 used to visit the tents to unravel and carry off the strands of the frayed 
 tent ropes, probably to line their nests with. Clinging head downward 
 while picking away at the rope end, they showed off the rich colours of 
 their plumage, and would let one approach within a few yards. In a big 
 gum-tree they are very active birds, hunting over the stems and branches, 
 tearing off with their powerful beaks the loose dead bark, and feeding upon 
 the exposed insects -chiefly small beetles, larvae, and ants. When attacked 
 or wounded by other birds they are good fighters, and with their powerful 
 bills can inflict a serious wound upon bird or man. The male and female 
 differ both in size and coloration. The female is the smaller ; the black on 
 the throat of the male is in her case replaced by green, and her eyes and feet 
 are darker. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 11 CRESTED SHRIKE TIT." 
 
 Falcunculus frontalns, Lathnm. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 11 SHORT-BILLED TREE TIT." 
 
 Smicrornis brevirostris, Gould. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 "MOUNTAIN THRUSH." 
 
 Oreocincla lunulata, Latham. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 51 
 
 Gould, when he published his great work, did not know anything about 
 the nest or eggs of the Crested Shrike-tit, but later bird hunters found that 
 the nest was placed in a slender fork in the topmast branch of a gum-tree. 
 It is comprised of strips of fine bark and grass forming a sphere-shaped cup,, 
 coated on the outside with bits of lichen and 'moss matted together with 
 spiders' web, and lined inside with softer material. The oval, white eggs, twa 
 or three in number, are freckled all over with fine spots, with a few larger 
 blotches of dark olive-grey and reddish-brown at their apex. Mr. G. E-, 
 Shepherd, the Victorian naturalist, quoted by Campbell, says that the nest 
 would be hard to find were it not for the male bird piping forth a low soft 
 flute-like note on an adjacent limb. He sings while she (the female) works 
 hard to build the nest, the male apparently assisting very little, if at all, in 
 the work. He does a certain amount of the preliminary work, however, in 
 clearing a space for the nest before the foundations are laid, adds the 
 observer. 
 
 The Short-billed Tree-tit (Smicornis brevirostris Gould). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 272, No. 161 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 124, No. 250. 
 
 This is one of the smallest and at the same time one of the most industrious 
 birds in Australia; it is allied to the European tits, and has very similar 
 habits. It spends its time among the foliage of the gum-trees hunting for 
 insects among the flowers and leaves. This species has a wide range over 
 eastern Australia from Queensland to Victoria and across South Australia to- 
 the West. It makes a very small, perfectly round nest of grass, lined inside 
 with feathers and grass matted together with spiders' web, with a tiny 
 opening on the side. This swings among the foliage or is attached to a twig, 
 and is only three inches in diameter. The eggs, of which there are three or 
 four, are brownish and glossy, with a belt of darker brown round the apex. 
 
 These birds live in small communities, traversing the top-most gum 
 branchlets. According to Campbell, their ordinary call is "a rasping little 
 note like a tit's (Acanthiza), while now and again they answer one another 
 in a sweet simple call." 
 
 The Mountain Thrush (Creocincla lunulata Latham). 
 
 Gould V Handbook, vol. I, p. 439, No. 275 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 133, No. 280. 
 
 This bird is a true thrush, belonging to the same family (Turdidce) as the 
 well-known British Thrush, Black-bird, and Nightingale; and it has been, 
 proposed to place it in the typical genus Turdus. Its generic name has been 
 altered several times. Mr. Campbell called it Geocichla lunulata. 
 
 As its name suggests, the Mountain or Ground Thrush lives chiefly upon 
 the ground ; in Tasmania it frequents the bush on the slopes of Mount 
 Wellington, in New South Wales it inhabits the cedar brushes of the Liver- 
 pool Plains, and in Victoria it secretes itself in the dense ti-tree scrub along 
 the shores of Hobson's Bay. In feouth Australia it is found in similar 
 localities. 
 
52 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS, 
 
 The food of this bird chiefly consists of land snails, earth-worms, insect 
 larvae, and ants. It is one of the earliest nesting birds in the bush. Com- 
 mencing to build in mid-winter it constructs a large open nest of moss, 
 leaves, and grass matted together with earth, and lined inside. Built upon a 
 stout limb of a low tree, it is usually well sheltered by the scrub arid, even 
 if only a few feet off the ground, is easily passed unnoticed. The buff-white 
 eggs, two or three in number, are spotted or blotched with reddish brown 
 and clouded with red. 
 
 The Spotted Ground-bird (Cinclosoma punctalum Latham). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 433, No. 271 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 128, No. 206. 
 
 Five species of this genus are given in Ramsey's list one a rare species 
 irom Derby, north-west Australia, and four (of which two are common in 
 New South Wales) from the interior. The Spotted Ground-bird is found in 
 Tasmania, and ranges through South Australia and Victoria, well up into 
 Queensland. It frequents scrubby country, trusting to its running powers 
 when* startled ; its habits and actions are somewhat similar to those of the 
 quail. 
 
 These birds, says Gould, were often exposed for sale in Hobart under the 
 name of the Ground Dove, together with Wattle-birds and Bronze-wing 
 Pigeons. They are handsome birds with chestnut, black and white plumage, 
 but though widely scattered over the country, are seldom seen by the ordinary 
 traveller on account of their retiring habits. They form a loose round nest 
 of bark and leaves, which is always built on the ground, and contains two, 
 and sometimes three, large, brown, blotched eggs. 
 
 The Spotted Diamond-bird (Pardalotus punctatus Tem.). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 157, No. 81 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 167, No. 340. 
 
 The beautiful little birds belonging to the genus Pardalotus are peculiar to 
 Australia and Tasmania. Seven species were listed by Gould. Two or three 
 species may sometimes be found frequenting the same locality, but some have 
 & well-defined range. This representative species has a very wide distribu- 
 tion over Tasmania and the southern and eastern areas of Australia. 
 In the days, when every genteel home had a case of stuffed birds in a 
 prominent position in the drawing-room, the motley assembly invariably 
 contained a pair of Spotted Diamond-birds. They are very active, fearless 
 little birds. I remember, as a small boy in Victoria, watching a pair that spent 
 a lot of time on the shingle roof of a verandah, scraping up the soft, weathered 
 wood fibre, which they apparently collected and carried off to line their nest. 
 They spend most -of their time among the foliage of the trees, hunting on the 
 leaves and among the loose bark on the trunk and branches for all sorts of 
 .small insects. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 "SPOTTED GROUND BIRD." 
 
 Cindosoma pun datum, Latham. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " DIAMOND BIRD." 
 
 Pardalotus punctatus, Shaw. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF ^EW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 "MISTLETOE BIRD." 
 
 Dicceum hirundinaceum, Gould. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 53 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that, while all our other species make their nests in 
 'hollows or holes in trees, this species should be subterranean in its nesting 
 habits. Selecting a shelving bank, the female drills a small circular tunnel 
 in a horizontal direction for several feet through the soil, and forms at the 
 nd of it a regular chamber. There, in pitch darkness, she builds a carefully- 
 woven nest of bits of bark, with a hole on the side, and in this she lays four 
 or five rather round pure-white eggs. How these birds construct such a 
 compact nest in absolute darkness, and why they should take so much trouble 
 over one that is hidden beyond two feet of clay, are questions that are very 
 hard to answer. Though the Spotted Diamond-bird is common in some 
 localities, it is not often seen by the casual observer ; and the hole in the 
 bank leading into the nest chamber is so small that, unless you are lucky 
 enough to see the little cave-nester entering or emerging, you may easily 
 miss its doorway. 
 
 The Mistletoe-bird (Dicceum hirundinaceum Shaw). 
 
 Oould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 581, No. 358; Leach's Bird Book, page 166, No. 366. 
 
 This curious little bird is the sole representative in Australia of a group 
 common in the Indian region and southward to New Guinea. It has a wide 
 range over the greater part of Australia, but does not extend to Tasmania. 
 Lewin, in his ** Birds of New Holland," called it the Crimson-throated 
 Honey-eater ; other writers, following its scientific name, call it the Swallow 
 Dicseum. Among popular names it has had that of Cherry-picker, but as this 
 little bird confines itself to the bush forest, the name does not seem a 
 particularly appropriate one. It is a common resident in the open forest, 
 where it makes its home in the she-oak trees. It is the bird's fondness for 
 the mistletoe the milky-berried parasite plant which infests the she-oak in 
 common with others of our trees which gives it the name we have favoured. 
 Indeed, the fruit of these native mistletoes, with small insects, forms the 
 main part of our friend's diet. 
 
 Though often numerous in suitable localities, by reason of its small size and 
 retiring habits (for it usually frequents the topmost branchlets of the she-oak), 
 the Mistletoe-bird is seldom seen by the casual visitor to bushland. Gould says 
 of its music " Its song is a very animated and long continued strain, but is 
 littered so inwardly that it is almost necessary to stand beneath the tree 
 upon which the bird is perched before its notes can be heard." 
 
 The Mistletoe-bird is a tiny bird with the shining black coat of a swallow 
 and the crimson throat of a robin. The female is not so richly coloured as 
 the male, the crimson tint being reduced to brownish buff. The nest is a beauti- 
 ful structure swung to a slender branchlet of she-oak or gum. It is a pear- 
 shaped bag, composed of seeds, spiders' cocoons, and soft vegetable matter. 
 It has an opening on the side and contains three or four pure-white eggs. 
 
54 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 The Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike (Cotacina robusta). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 192, No. 103 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 127, No. 262. 
 
 The Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike has a number of popular namea. In my 
 boyhood in Victoria I remember we called it the Big Summer-bird to 
 distinguish it from the smaller wood-swallows also summer-birds. In New 
 South Wales it is called the Blue-jay, as in the plate illustrating our article. 
 Other popular names are Blue-pigeon, Leatherhead, and Cherry-hawk three- 
 names, given in Leach's list, that are very misleading. Its scientific name 
 has also been changed, for it was described in Gould's work as Graucalus 
 melanopSj while Latham had previousiy designated it Corvus melanops, Black- 
 faced Crow. This bird has suffered badly from a multiplicity of names and 
 has been likened to a number of birds to which it has no affinity. 
 
 The Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike is a handsome slate-blue bird, with the side 
 of the face and neck black. It generally flies alone or in pairs, and either in- 
 flight or when resting on the ground resembles a cuckoo. It usually selects 
 as its perch a bare branch of a tall gum ; here it feeds on passing insect*,, 
 but it also gets some of its food from among the grass. It has a very wide 
 range, from the Malay Archipelago, through New Guinea and Australia, to- 
 Tasmania. 
 
 This bird's nest is a shallow one, situated on the tip of a horizontal branch 
 and composed of small sticks closely woven together ; in this it lays two- 
 eggs, varying from brown to dull-green in colour, spotted and blotched alt 
 over the surface with brown. 
 
 The White-shouldered Caterpillar-eater (Lalage tricolor Swainson). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 204, No. 112 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 127, No. 256. 
 
 This bird was originally described under the name of Campephagct 
 humeralis, but later was removed from that group into the genus Lalage, 
 Though the older popular name of White-shouldered Campephaga may be- 
 rather cumbersome it is much more distinctive than that of Caterpillar-eater,, 
 a name which might be applied to many other birds. In the later generic- 
 application, White-shouldered Lalage, we would have a suitable and 
 euphonious popular name. The White-shouldered Lalage is migratory in 
 New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, appearing in the first 
 State in November. With its bright black and white plumage it somewhat 
 resembles a large robin. It frequents the open forest, has a quick, direct, 
 flight, and gets most of its food on the ground. 
 
 The nest is a very shallow affair, composed of bits of bark woven together 
 with dried twigs and grass, lined inside and placed in the fork of a dead 
 tree. The eggs, two or three in number, vary in ground colour from pale- 
 green to greyish ; those in some clutches are deeply and heavily blotched y, 
 but in others may be scarcely spotted. According to Gould, the female is a 
 very shy bird, with a song so sweet that it might almost be mistaken for- 
 that of a canary. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 44 BLUE JAY." 
 
 Goracina robusta, Latham. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " CATERPILLAR EATER." 
 Lalage tricolor, Swainson. 
 

 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 HOODED ROBIN"; "BLACK AND WHITE ROBIN.' 
 
 MELANODRYAS BICOLOR. Vig. and Horsf. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 55 
 
 The Hooded Robin [Petrceca (Melanodryas} bicolor Vig. and Horfs.] 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 283, No. 168 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 133, No. 249. 
 
 Black-and- White, or Pied Robin, are names also given to this handsome 
 little bird. Both are distinctive, as the plumage is all black and white, 
 without any red on the head or breast, while the black plumage of the 
 head and throat forms a regular hood. The old generic name of Melanodryas 
 used by Campbell, Nor^th, and on our plate, has been discarded for that of 
 Petrceca, for in structure and habits this bird should be grouped with these 
 redbreasts. Hall and Leach both use this generic name. 
 
 This robin may be found in open forest country over the length and 
 breadth of Australia, and in favoured localities is a common bird. It is very 
 active in hunting for insects, catching them on the wing, among foliage, and 
 on the ground. This bird is somewhat remarkable by reason of its habit of 
 selecting for its nest a lowly site such as the top of a stump, or the fork of 
 a low sapling. The nest is a typically cup-shaped robin's, composed of bits 
 of bark or twigs and grass, with the outer surface covered with bits of bark 
 attached by spiders' web, the whole compactly built and lined inside with 
 soft materials. The eggs, either three or four in the clutch, vary in colour 
 from dull-apple to olive-green, sometimes with a clouded band at the apex. 
 
 The Yellow-breasted Robin (Eopsaltria australis Latham.) 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I., p. 293, No. 175 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 132, No. 326. 
 The bird pictured in our illustration as the Yellow-breasted Robin is, 
 strictiy speaking, a shrike-robin, and belongs to a different group from 
 that containing the robin-redbreasts. It was among the first birds noticed 
 at Sydney Cove, and is figured in White's " Voyage to New South Wales " 
 (1790), under the name of the Southern Motacilla. It may be noticed that 
 many of the older naturalists called the different robins flycatchers. Lewin, 
 in his " Birds of New Holland," figured this one, and called it the Yellow- 
 breasted Thrush. Gould formed the genus Eopsaltria (Eos dawn, and PsaUria 
 a musician), which might be translated as " a singer at dawn," for this bird 
 and allied species. 
 
 The range of this robin is chiefly confined to the thick timber and dense 
 brush country along the coastal districts of New South Wales and Victoria, 
 and does not extend far inland. Two species are found in the eastern area 
 and two in Western Australia. 
 
 The Yellow-breasted Robin feeds upon all kinds of small insects, often 
 resting quietly on a branch to fly down and snap up a moth or fly on the wing. 
 She makes her nest towards the end of September or early in October a nest 
 which, even compared with those of the other robins, which are all of dainty 
 craftsmanship is a masterpiece in bird architecture. It is cup-shaped, and is 
 composed of strips of bark and roots, lined with leaves and matted together 
 with cobwebs, to which are attached lichens and bits of bark over the outer 
 
56 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 surface, so that when placed in the fork of a tree its outward surface blends- 
 with its surroundings. It contains a pair of bright-green eggs speckled all 
 over with brown. Like other robins, this one does not escape the attention 
 of lazy mother cuckoos, for the Pallid Cuckoo (Cuculus pallidus) often places 
 her egg in the nest. The unfortunate robin nestlings are then thrown out 
 of the nest by their sturdy foster-brother and come to an untimely fate. 
 
 The Pheasant-eoucal or Scrub-pheasant (Centropus phasianus Latham). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 634, No. 388. 
 
 The popular name of Scrub-pheasant is a very unfortunate one for this; 
 curious bird, which has nothing in common with the true pheasant, except 
 some likeness in coloration of its plumage. By classification and structure it 
 is a cuckoo,- but in its habits it differs from its nearest relations ; for instead 
 of the hen laying her eggs in the nests of other birds, she constructs a large 
 dome-shaped nest of her own with an opening on either side, so that her head 
 sticks out of the front door, and her long tail stands out through the back 
 entrance. The nest is usually placed in a tuft of long grass carefully con- 
 cealed from view, and contains from three to five eggs, very round, dull-white, 
 and as Gould says, " somewhat like those of a Cormorant." 
 
 Though the Pheasant-eoucal ranges as far south as our Illawarra scrubs,, 
 it is a rare bird until one gets much further north, and most of my own* 
 experiences with it have been in the north Queensland brushes and the- 
 coastal districts of north-west Australia. Its natural home is in marshy or 
 swampy land where there is plenty of cover, but it also frequents the banks of 
 creeks and rivers. Usually found upon the ground when one is travelling 
 through the bush, they fly up into the nearest tree with a frightened squeak, 
 and with a series of flying jumps get up to the topmost branches. Their 
 powerful feet are admirably adapted for the life they lead upon the ground, 
 scratching over the rubbish, They are omnivorous in their diet, and though 
 chiefly insectivorous nothing comes amiss. 
 
 The members of the genus Centropus (which is a compound Greek word 
 meaning " spine foot," in allusion to the large claw on the hind toe) are a 
 curious group of birds distributed over the greater part of Africa, India, 
 China, and Malaysia to Australia. The typical Indian species is a large 
 bird over 2 feet in length to the tip of its tail. When describing our species 
 Stephens called it Cuculus phasianus, but Illiger created the present genus 
 for an African species, so our bird came under the same heading. 
 
 The Orange-backed Wren (Malm us melanocephalus Vig. and Horsf). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 333, No. 196. 
 
 Red-backed Wren is another name for this handsome little bird, and 
 Lewin, in his " Birds of New Holland/' called it the Scarlet-backed Warbler. 
 Unlike the Blue Wren, it does not visit our gardens, but frequents the well- 
 grassed valleys along the mountain sides usually in pairs, not in small 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 11 THE PHEASANT COUCAL." 
 
 Centropus phasianus. 
 Dark form, male; lighter-coloured, female. 
 

 *v , . *. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 57 
 
 family parties like other wrens. Its rich black tints contrast strikingly with 
 its orange back, making the adult male a very handsome little fellow. He 
 has the stupid habit, however, of our Blue Wren, of showing himself off in a 
 prominent position, a habit often responsible for his undoing should a 
 Butcher-bird catch sight of his showy coat. 
 
 This bird ranges over the greater part of the southern and eastern portions 
 of Australia. In the northern parts of Australia its place is taken by a 
 closely related species, M alums cruentatus, which Gould called Brown's Wren, 
 after one of the officers of H.M.S. Beagle, who collected it at Port Essington, 
 in the Northern Territory. I met with this species in the grass-land of 
 north-western Australia, in the vicinity of King's Sound. It is a smaller 
 wren than the southern one, with the back a deeper rich red. 
 
 The Black-headed 8 uperb- warbler is a name also given to this bird, but 
 the one I have favoured is much less cumbersome as a popular name and 
 makes acknowledgment, too, of the characteristic and rich colouring of the 
 back. The nest is of the usual oval domed form with a hole-in the side ; it 
 is constructed of dry grass, lined inside with finer materials, and contains 
 three or four roundish glossy-white eggs, blotched and spotted with reddish- 
 brown on the apex. 
 
58 SOME USEFUL AUSTBALA1N BiEDS. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Birds of Inland Plains, Swamps, Open 
 Forests, and Scrubs. 
 
 In making this division one has to place in it some birds that are equally 
 at home in the last section, and which are found along the edges of our coastal 
 forests. All those birds that may be considered typical of the western, 
 lands, that enliven the open box fortsts, that live in the giant red-gum trees 
 that fringe the banks of our inland rivers and swamps, or that police the 
 scrub on the sand ridges and red-soil flats or the great open grass-covered, 
 plains have been retained in this section. They are as follows : 
 
 Plain-turkey or Bustard White-winged Chough 
 
 (Eupodotis australis). (Corcorax melanorhar):phus)^ 
 
 Mallee-fowl or Lowan White-browed Babbler 
 
 (Leipoa ocellata). (Pomatorhinus superciliosa)~ 
 
 Stone Plover or Land Curlew Grey-crowned Babbler 
 
 (Burh.nus grallarius). (Pomatorhinus temporalis)- 
 
 Black -breasted Plover Apostle-bird (Struthidea cine ea). 
 
 (Zonifer tricolor). Sacred Kingfisher (Halcyon sanctus)^ 
 
 Spur- winged Plover Nankeen Kestrel 
 
 (Lobivanellus lobatus). (Cerchneis cencroides)^ 
 
 Straw-necked Ibis Wedge-tailed Eagle 
 
 (Carphibis spimcollis). (Urocetus audax)* 
 
 Blue-crane or White-fronted Heron. Brown Tree-creeper 
 
 (Notophoyx novce-hollandice). (Climacteris scandens\ 
 
 Nankeen Night Heron Orange-winged Nut-hatch 
 
 (Nycticorax cakdonicus). (Neositta chrysoptera). 
 
 Pacific Gull (Gabianus padficus). Crested Bell-liird (Oreoica cristata.} 
 
 White-eyed Crow or Raven White-fronted Chat 
 
 (Corone australis). (Ephthianura albifrons), 
 
 The Australian Bustard or Plain-turkey (Eupodotis australis Gray). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 208, No. 495 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 51, No. 110. 
 
 An old cock Bustard in full spring plumage, strutting about over the open* 
 plains looking after three or four of the smaller hens, is the most handsome 
 and stately of all our birds. The harmonious blend of the pepper-and-salt 
 plumage, the upright carriage, the sweeping neck plumes and bright yellow 
 eye keeping keen watch all round, make up a sight to be remembered. 
 
 The Bustard is found all over Australia, but migrates from one part of the 
 country to the other, following its food supplies. In the old days, on the 
 plains of north-west Victoria, as soon as the grasshoppers made their appear 
 ance we were sure to have wild turkeys in the paddocks within a few weeks. 
 
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SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 59 
 
 It is the sole representative of a group of birds (OtiJcr] that is widely 
 scattered over the world. A few hundred years ago one species was common 
 in the south of England, and used to be hunted with greyhounds. Others 
 are found on the plains of Africa and Asia. 
 
 In the breeding season the female makes no nest, but deposits her egg 
 {some writers say there are sometimes two) in a depression in the ground or 
 crab-holey country, or near lignum bushes. The baby turkey, as soon as he 
 hatches out of the egg, is as cunning as most ground birds, and can look 
 after himself. Never moving when discovered, he will allow himself to be 
 picked up and handled, but will run off when placed on the ground. 
 
 Concerning the food of the Bustard, I have seen some very curious state- 
 ments published. Mr. Aflalo, in his " Natural History of Australia," speak- 
 ing of the Bustard says : " Lives entirely on the open plains, feeding upon 
 lizards and roots. As a game bird, the Bustard ought to be protected, but a 
 great deal of nonsense has been written about the great importance of the 
 Bustard or wild turkey from an insectivorous standpoint. In northern 
 Victoria, though the wild turkeys used to follow the grasshoppers, they were 
 always rare birds, and a flock of a dozen or twenty was a large one ; usually 
 they were found in a family party of four or five, and on a 600-acre paddock 
 full of grasshoppers would not make as much impression on the pest as the 
 crows or magpies." In Lucas and Le Souef s " Birds of Australia," the 
 .authors say : " At times when crammed with grasshoppers, which they are 
 doing their best to destroy, they fall victims to the stick of the ungrateful 
 but hungry settler." If the authors mean that the wild turkeys, gorged to 
 repletion, can be approached and killed with a stick by a hungry selector, 
 the birds must have deteriorated or be very different birds to those we used 
 to hunt on the plains of northern Victoria. I have examined the crops of 
 many Bustards, and in the spring the main part of their food consists of 
 dandelion heads anql other vegetable matter, together with a few centipedes, 
 ground weevils, beetles, and other insects found on the plains. In the summer, 
 the crops contained chiefly grasshoppers, but their food was very varied. In 
 Victoria, in particular, the great insectivorous value of the Bustard has been 
 very much over-rated for example, see Mr. Hall's " Useful Birds of Southern 
 Australia" when dealing with this bird. 
 
 The Bustard, like all other large game birds which nest upon the ground, 
 is bound to disappear with the advance of civilisation, wire fences, cultivation 
 paddocks, and forest destruction, to say nothing of the introduction of the 
 fox and other ground enemies. It is our finest game bird, and should be 
 protected as a game bird, when it would probably increase in time in 
 uncultivated areas, and be a valuable asset. I have weighed many Bustards 
 ranging from 12 Ib. to 16 Ib. in weight, and it is not uncommon to get one 
 over 20 Ib. in weight. From a sportsman's point of view, this bird 
 always took good hunting, and, if one's luck was out, one might spend all 
 -day and never get one. Many a day have I spent driving turkeys, which 
 
60 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 is as great an art as their shooting. The success of the day's bag depended 
 not only on the aim of the sportsman, but the skill and judgment of the 
 driver, who, driving gradually, not towards the feeding birds, but in ever 
 lessening circles, gradually brought the vehicle with the shooter sitting 
 behind within range of the watching bird. The moment the trap stopped, 
 the turkeys were up, and if the horse had been badly trained, and was 
 restless, it took a good shot to bag his bird at anything near 100 yards. 
 On very hot days, however, the wild turkeys were not so active, and had a 
 very curious habit (particularly if feeding in crab-holey or rough ground) of 
 " squatting," evidently under the impression they were concealed from the 
 approaching enemy. They would squat close to the ground, draw the head 
 and neck down on the body, and if the watcher happened to take his eye off 
 just before this vanishing trick was effected, it was often very difficult to 
 locate the exact spot where the game was hidden. Sometimes the trick 
 would be done on an absolutely bare patch of soil, and the bird would allow 
 one to get within easy range under the mistaken idea that it was quite safe. 
 
 In north-west Australia, in from King's Sound, I have seen Bustards in 
 comparatively thick scrub land, but in New South Wales and Victoria 
 they are seldom seen off the plains. 
 
 On 17th January, 1919, while at the Government Sheep-fly Experiment 
 Station near Moree, where wild turkeys were not uncommon in the long 
 grass, I obtained a bird only about a fortnight old, which one of the 
 boundary riders caught when it was coming into a dam with its mother to 
 drink in the evening. This active little creature was for several weeks 
 kept in a small yard, where it became very tame, but frequently uttered a 
 very plaintive frightened cry if one went near or touched it. It would eat 
 almost any kind of food, but preferred raw or cooked meat cut into small 
 pieces. At the time of writing (nearly twelve months later) this bird is 
 well grown and in our Zoological Gardens. 
 
 The Mallee-fowl or Lowan (Leipoa ocellata). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, page 155, No. 477 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 13, No. 2. 
 
 This curious bird differs in form and coloration from all the other members 
 of the mound-nesting birds known as Megapodes, and is found further south 
 than any other form of the group, ranging through the north-western 
 districts of Victoria, central South Australia, and across Western Australia- 
 almost to the coast. The popular name of Mallee-hen or Mallee-fowl defines 
 it well, as it inhabits all that class of low scrub, dwarfed eucalypts, and other 
 scrubs known as the Mallee. Under the protection of this it constructs the 
 remarkable mound nest that attracted the attention of all the early 
 travellers and naturalists. Gould gave a long and interesting account of 
 these birds and their mounds in his " Birds of Australia," and was so- 
 
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 PQ W ^ 
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SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 61 
 
 interested in their curious habits that he first published his records in the 
 Tastnanian Journal. Wood, in his " Homes without Hands," gives a some- 
 what imaginary picture of a party of blackfellows digging out the eggs. 
 Several writers have remarked upon the survival of these birds in our fauna, 
 when their nests were so easily found by the natives, and it has been 
 suggested that the different tribes had some form of protection among 
 themselves to keep the birds from extinction. Up to the time of the 
 agricultural settlement of the mallee lands of Victoria, these birds were fairly 
 common : and though natives are plentiful, and food supplies not too- 
 abundant, the Mallee-hens hold their own in Western Australia. Giles, in 
 bis " Australia Twice Traversed," says, speaking of the Mount Margaret 
 district, that the eggs of the Lowan were a great adjunct to their camp fare, 
 and records collecting seventy of these eggs in two days, in spite of the fact 
 that wild natives were numerous, and were also digging out the eggs. 
 
 The Mallee-hen is about the size of a domestic barnyard fowl, of a uniform 
 brownish-yellow colour, with the feathers mottled in the centre with light 
 brown, so that the general colour harmonises with the dull-red and browns 
 of the soil of the mallee scrub. Standing erect, she is a handsome bird, with 
 well-developed wings, broad tail, stout legs, and large feet, admirably adapted 
 for scratching out food and scraping up earth, leaves, and mould, in the 
 formation of her large, rounded, dome-shaped nest. 
 
 The mound nest is constructed in the shelter of the scrub, and when the 
 whole of the surrounding surface has been swept up, the nest measures about 
 4 feet in height and 12 feet in diameter at the base. The male and female 
 share in the work of scraping up the damp leaf-mould and sand, and upon 
 completion of their task open out the centre. The female deposits the eggs 
 in three circles of four or five eggs each, or a total of fifteen eggs, so that 
 there are three layers, one above the other, in this wonderful forcing bed. 
 
 During the season, the female lays one egg, in the early mornings, every 
 third day, and covers it with sand and leaf-mould. The eggs are very large 
 in proportion to the size of the birds, and have very thin shells, of a pink 
 biscuit-brown tint. As there is such a long interval between the date of 
 laying of the first and last egg of the clutch, the young chicks come out at 
 irregular periods ; but the Mallee-hen understands her work, and before the 
 young birds are expected, opens out her nest, to allow the escape of the 
 newly-hatched chicks. The baby Mallee-hens are feathered on emergence, 
 can run and fly, and are able to hunt for their own food ; but the parent 
 birds feed close by in the scrub, and gather together the nestlings as they 
 leave the mound into a family party. 
 
 The Mallee-hens are insectivorous, and find their food on the ground, so- 
 that they must do a great deal in keeping down all kinds of ground insects, 
 inhabiting the open forest country. 
 
62 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 The Stone Plover or Land Curlew (Burhinus grallarius Latham). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 210, No. 496 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 51, No. 109. 
 
 This shy, retiring bird is much better known to most people by reason of its 
 weird melancholy cry or long drawn out, whistle-like note, rather than by 
 personal observation of the bird itself. The calling of a pair of curlews in 
 the long winter evening round an isolated homestead or a lonely camp fire 
 is mournful enough to give the newcomer from the city a fit of the blues ; 
 but to the true imaginative bushman it is one of the " voices of the night " 
 that rather appeals to his sense of fitness with the surroundings " often 
 striking a chill into the heart of the benighted traveller, for the imitation 
 of the call of this bird is often a signal whistle from the bushranger to his 
 mates at night." says the author of " Bush Wanderings." 
 
 The birds frequent open box forests and lightly timbered flats, seldom 
 coming out on the open plains ; and they may often be quite numerous with- 
 out being seen by the traveller. At the least alarm they stand perfectly 
 still with the head and neck pointing out, and their grey and brown plumage 
 blends so closely, with the country they frequent that is usually an acci- 
 dent if one is seen unless it moves. They are, however, always alert, with 
 their large bright yellow eyes watching the intruder, and are ready to run or 
 ily as soon as they think they are noticed ; otherwise, they will allow a 
 person to come quite close, and pass them on the track without moving. 
 
 No regular nest is made, but, like the true Plover, the female lays her two 
 blotched, brown eggs in a slight depression on the ground, where their 
 ground-tint matches the soil, and does not display them to their enemies. 
 
 The curlews are usually found in pairs, except after the nesting season, 
 when they are found in small family parties ; and in the days when hawks 
 were plentiful they suffered much from their attacks. Poisoning has killed 
 out the hawks ; but it has also, when used for rabbits, caused the death of 
 many curlews who picked the pollard baits when feeding over the ground 
 at night. Now, with the introduction of the fox, the enemy of all ground- 
 nesting birds, there is another change in the balance of nature. 
 
 With reasonable protection curlews will hold their own in all open forest 
 country where settlement is not too dense, and, feeding chiefly at night, 
 they capture and destroy many insects that are not out in the daytime. 
 On account of their nocturnal habits they have been introduced into subur- 
 ban gardens to keep down the slugs and snails, and in this capacity they are 
 one of the best friends of the gardener. 
 
 Our curlew has many popular names, such as the Land Curlew, Stone 
 Plover, and Norfolk Plover ; but it will always be known to the bushman as 
 the curlew. It must not, however, be confounded with the Curlew or 
 Whimbrel of Europe, which, though having a somewhat similar call-note, 
 is classed in an allied group, and is quite a different looking bird. It is 
 much larger, more mottled, and furnished with a long slender bill adapted 
 for picking up water-insects and small crustaceans along the marshy sea 
 coast. 
 
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SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 63 
 
 The Black-breasted Plover (Zonifer tricolor Vieill). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 222, No. 502 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 43, No. 81. 
 
 This handsome ground bird has a very wide range over Australia, and is 
 common on the open grassed plains and about the edges of swamps or river 
 flats. It is usually found in small parties of four or five, tripping over 
 the ground hunting for the insects and small crustaceans found in such 
 localities, rising with a sharp cry when startled, but seldom flying very far 
 before agaic alighting. In the nesting season it is very wary, and if 
 sitting on the four dark-brown, blotched, top shaped eggs (simply deposited 
 in a depression among the grass) the female will creep away at the first 
 alarm, and flying in front of the intruder, will flutter over the grass pretend- 
 ing to have a broken wing, or some more serious malady, chattering all the 
 time as she edges the unwelcome stranger away from her precious eggs. 
 
 The coloration of these eggs so closely resembles the surrounding soil that 
 they are very hard to detect unless the bird is disturbed while sitting upon 
 them. The nestlings can run as soon as they emerge from the shell, and 
 their brown and drab suits of down are even more adapted to their 
 surroundings than the coloration of the eggs. At the first warning cry of 
 the mother the baby plovers at once scatter among the surrounding grass 
 and instinctively squat flat down, hardly moving an eyelid, and even on a, 
 bare plain will often successfully fool the inquisitive hunter. 
 
 After the nesting season the family parties gather together in small flocks 
 of a dozen or more, and hunt over the open plains, their rich black, white, 
 and reddish-brown plumage giving them a very attractive appearance. 
 
 Looked upon as game birds by the sportsman out to kill, they were often 
 shot and added to his bag. but the country resident, however keen a sports- 
 man among wild duck and larger game, is seldom guilty of shooting at our 
 useful Black-breasted Plover. 
 
 The Spur-winged Plover (LoUvanellus lobatus Latham). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 220, No. 501 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 43, No. 80. 
 
 The Spur-winged Plover is met with in many parts of Australia ; though 
 often found in small flocks upon the plains, it is common along the edges of 
 creeks and swamps, where it obtains much of its food. Here it is often 
 a serious annoyance to the sportsman, suddenly flying up in front of him, 
 and with its harsh call-notes warning ducks and teal of his approach. 
 Many a wild duck has escaped from the game-bag by heeding the warning 
 cry of the startled Spur-winged Plover. 
 
 The habits and methods of nesting of this bird are similar to those of the 
 smaller Black-breasted Plover, but in appearance they are very, easily 
 distinguished by their lighter colour, longer legs, and the curious wattles or 
 naked growths below the eyes. The remarkable appendage from which 
 they take their popular name of " spur- winged," consists of a sharp thorn-like 
 
64 SOME USEFUL ^(JSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 projection on the point of the elbow of the wing ; but though the spur should 
 be a weapon of offence or defence, the writer has never seen the birds use it 
 in any way. 
 
 All the plovers are looked upon as game birds in Great Britain, and 
 plovers' eggs are imported from the Continent. In this country sportsmen 
 were once accustomed to add them to their bag when other game was scarce, 
 but under our latest regulations they are protected all the year round in 
 -consideration of their insectivorous habits. 
 
 The Straw-necked Ibis [Carphibis (Geronticus) spinicollis Jamieson]. 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 282, No. 538 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 53, No. 113. 
 
 In the ibis family we have a very interesting group of large insectivorous 
 birds, the members of which are found in most parts of the world. In 
 Australia the family is represented by three species, which are to be found 
 in all the different States. The Glossy Ibis (Plegadis fakinellus) is the 
 smallest of the three, and, unlike the others, has the whole of the head and 
 neck feathered. The whole of the plumage is of a uniform chestnut-brown 
 tint with glossy metallic reflections. Though it is our rarest species, it has a 
 very wide distribution, being found in England, southern Europe, northern 
 Africa, across Asia to Australia, and it is also found in marsh lands of 
 Florida, in the south-east of the United States. 
 
 The second is the White Ibis (Ibis molucca] which, though confined to 
 Australia, New Guinea, aud some of the southern islands of the Malay 
 Archipelago, is closely related to the White Ibis or Sacred Ibis of Africa, 
 which was worshipped in ancient Egypt, where it appeared every year from 
 the interior with the inundation of the Nile delta lands. Many mummies 
 of these birds have been found in the excavations among the tombs, and in 
 the time of the Pharaohs it was a capital offence to kill an ibis. It is said 
 that when Cambyses, King of Persia, laid siege to the town of Damietta, he 
 placed a number of Sacred Ibis in front of his soldiers who led the attack, 
 and that the Egyptian defenders capitulated rather than allow the destruc- 
 tion of these birds, to such an extent was this veneration carried out in 
 ancient Egypt. 
 
 The common White Ibis has the head bare, beak and legs black, and a few 
 black plumes in the wings. It is often noticed in pairs about the swamps, 
 but will congregate in flocks and do a great deal of useful work in destroying 
 all kinds of insect pests. Though not so numerous in New South Wales as 
 the Straw-necked Ibis, it ranks well up in the list of useful insectivorous birds. 
 
 The third species, illustrated in this series, is typical of the family and 
 well known all over the State as the Black-and-White Ibis, on account of its 
 general coloration, or the Sbraw-neaked Ib's, b3causs of its remarkable neck 
 ornamentation, formed of aborted feathers. The shafts of the neck feathers 
 are produced into slender, yellow-pointed tubes, not unlike the quills of a 
 porcupine, and, on the old birds, hang down in quite a large bunch. In Vic 
 
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SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 65 
 
 toria the sportsmen used to call them Pick-axe Geese, on account of their 
 curiously shaped beak, and also from their somewhat harsh croak or honk, 
 which is like the call of the wild geese when crossing the plains, flying high 
 up in the sky and strung out in a wide V-shaped formation. Latham, who 
 was the first naturalist to describe the bird, called it the New Holland Ibis ; 
 later on Jamieson gave it the name of Ibis spinicollis, but Grey placed it in 
 the genus Geronticus ; this Gould adopted in his large folio work, but he 
 changed it to the genus Carphibis in his " Birds of Australia." Though 
 some modern writers retained the generic name Geronticus, later naturalists 
 dealing with our birds followed Gould, and it is now fixed in the genus 
 Carphibis. 
 
 The Straw-necked Ibis is one of the best known and most popular of 
 Australian birds, and if the farmers and squatters do not look upon it as 
 sacred, in a similar way to the ancient Egyptians, they value it as one of their 
 most important insectivorous birds. No one in a country district would think 
 of shooting an ibis. It is not, generally speaking, a coastal visitant, but is 
 found all over the inland country, being a frequenter in the winter months 
 of the shores of inland lakes, marshes, and swampy country, where it finds 
 large food supplies in the freshwater crustaceans, insects, and frogs. In the 
 early summer months these birds congregate in enormous flocks for the pur- 
 pose of nesting in the reed beds and swamps of the Lachlan River and other 
 parts of the Riverina country. Le Souef estimated that in a swamp of about 
 400 acres in extent, which his party visited in the nesting season in southern 
 Riverina, there were fully 100,000 ibis in possession. There is hardly any 
 attempt at nest-making ; the nest is simply a handful of rushes, flags, or grass, 
 scratched together on the top of the trampled-down vegetation. In the centre 
 of this is placed usually three, but sometimes four, pale greenish-white eggs. 
 In these swamps the nests are almost touching, and the whole surface of the 
 reed-beds is one sheet of eggs like a seagulls' rookery. As the young birds 
 grow up, but are unable to fly, they are shepherded together by some of the 
 old birds on the trampled-down lignum and reeds so that they cannot get into 
 the surrounding water, where, if unwatched, many of them would be drowned. 
 
 With the advent of the cutworm plagues in the grass paddocks, and the 
 hatching-out of the swarms of baby grasshoppers later on in the season, the 
 ibis flocks, freed from their domestic duties, scatter all over the plains, forest,, 
 and scrub. Broken up into small flocks of from fifty to several hundred, they 
 may be seen strutting or walking about in a very leisurely manner feeding 
 upon these pests, or, later in the day, when fully fed, resting upon dead tree* 
 or sleeping on fallen logs, where they are so little disturbed by man that they 
 take very little notice of anyone passing along the road. 
 
 By reason of its large size, its fondness for some of our very worst insect 
 pests (grasshoppers and cutworms), and its numbers, the ibis is one of the 
 most valuable insectivorous birds in Australia, and not only should the birds- 
 be protected, but their nesting grounds should be proclaimed sanctuaries, and 
 no shooting allowed in these areas, 
 t 976 15 C 
 
66 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 The White-fronted Heron or Blue-crane (Notophoyx 
 
 hollandice Latham). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 399, No. 548 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 60, No. 119. 
 
 Though correctly-informed persons and naturalists call this bird the 
 White-fronted Heron, the bushman knows it as the Blue-crane. It cannot , 
 however, be properly placed among the true cranes, which are all large birds 
 of quite a different build, typically represented in Australia by our Native 
 Companion. 
 
 This bird has an even wider range outside Australia and Tasmania than 
 the Nankeen Heron, for beyond New Zealand it ranges through the Loyalty 
 Islands, New Caledonia, New Guinea, and the Moluccas. It is common on 
 the low sandy beaches of our coast land, as well as around shallow swamps, 
 lakes, and marshes inland. Always busy, running quickly over the grass 
 and rushes or wading up to its knees in the muddy water, it captures unwary 
 crayfish, frogs, small crustaceans, and among them the small freshwater 
 snail that is the host of he larval fluke before it infests the liver of the 
 sheep.* On the sand it gets many ground insects, and in the time of locust 
 plagues lends a hand to the ibis and wood-swallows in destroying these 
 grass-eating pests. 
 
 Its nest is a flat structure made of sticks and a little grass, placed upon 
 the horizontal branch of a tree usually overhanging the water, and contains 
 four delicate bluish-green eggs, which in my young days were looked upon as 
 a prize by any collector of birds' eggs. 
 
 Like the Nankeen Heron, this graceful bird adds a charm to the landscape, 
 but is much more noticeable on account of its active daylight habits. Every- 
 one who watches a Blue-crane will see what a busy useful bird it is as 
 it engages on its accustomed duties. 
 
 The Nankeen Night-heron (Nycticorax caledomcus Latham). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 311, No. 557 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 61, No. 123. 
 
 This is a common heron found not only all over Australia and Tasmania 
 but also in New Zealand, and ranging north as far as the Celebes in the 
 Malay Archipelago. 
 
 In the early summer months, on the banks of the Murray River near 
 Ounbower, I have often roused out a dozen or more from the shelter of 
 the foliage of the giant red-gums, where, resting with the head and neck 
 bunched down on their shoulders, they were very easily overlooked in spite 
 of their size, as long as they remained stationary. When flapping out into 
 the bright sunlight they appeared to be quite dazed, and soon sought the 
 nearest shelter. 
 
 * Dr. C'obb asserts that the White-fronted Heron devours enormous quantities of 
 Bulinus, the mollusc which serves as the host of the sheep-fluke. A single snail of this 
 species will often harbour several hundred of the intermediate forms of the fluke. See 
 41 The Sheep Fluke," by Dr. N. A. Cob"b, Agricultural Gazette, July, 1897. 
 

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SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 67 
 
 They are usually found along the banks of rivers or in the vicinity of 
 swamps and lagoons. Just at dusk they fly out of their resting-place, and 
 their harsh croak can be heard all through the night as they hunt along the 
 banks or wade out into the mud hunting for crayfish, small frogs, crustaceans, 
 and insects, their lance-shaped beaks being admirably adapted for pouncing 
 upon all kinds of small fry. There has been, and still is, I believe, a 
 small colony of Nankeen Herons in the brush in the old garden at Macleay 
 House, Elizabeth Bay, from which they fly out in the evening and hunt over 
 the foreshores of the bay through the night. When nesting inland they 
 build a stout nest of sticks in the larger trees among the swamps and 
 lagoons, but on the coastal waters much less care is taken in the construction 
 of their nests, and they are much smaller and more flimsy. The eggs, four 
 in number, are a light bluish-green, and the young nestlings for some time 
 after they are hatched out are covered with dark down, which is spotted and 
 striped with white. As they lose their baby clothes, however, they don 
 the rich nankeen brown of the adults. 
 
 With the rich contrasting tints of back and breast, and the beautiful 
 white occipital head plumes and bright yellow eyes, the Nankeen Heron is a 
 handsome as well as a useful night hunter, and on account of both its value 
 and its beauty should be protected from the pot-hunter and the 
 thoughtless boy. 
 
 The Pacific Gull (Gabianus pacificus Latham). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 385, No. 596 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 41, No. 73. 
 
 The Pacific Gull is common along the coasts of Australia and Tasmania ; 
 this bird and the smaller Silver Gull (Larius novce-hollandice), are the 
 scavengers of our sands along the sea shore, devouring all kinds of dead 
 animal matter cast up by the waves. 
 
 These useful and handsome birds should be most carefully protected, not 
 only on account of their useful work on sea and land, but also because of the 
 added beauty and interest their presence give to the sea-side resorts. Anyone 
 shooting seagulls from the deck of a steamer or on our beaches should be 
 promptly dealt with, and bird-lovers will agree that such a person should be 
 treated without the option of a fine. 
 
 The Pacific Gull is the larger bird, having a total length of about 25 inches, 
 while the Silver Gull barely measures 17 inches. They usually construct 
 substantial open grass nests on the reefs and small islands along the coast, 
 and place them upon the ground sheltered among the grass tussocks and low 
 shrubs. The eggs, averaging two or three in number, are olive-green, and 
 marked with dark-brown blotches. The young birds are not fully plumaged 
 until the third year, according to Campbell, being clothed in a dull brown or 
 mottled grey coat, which is afterwards replaced with the beautiful white 
 feathers of the adults. The Silver Gulls live and breed more in small colonies, 
 sometimes collecting, in stormy weather, in large numbers in the sheltered 
 
68 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRD**. 
 
 inlets and harbours. Their nests are often so plentiful as to form regular 
 rookeries on the islands ; they are constructed of dry grass and sea-weed, 
 and contain from two to three greenish olive-tinted eggs covered with black 
 or yellowish-brown markings, but both the ground colour and markings are 
 very variable. The Silver Gull has a wide range along the coasts of Australia, 
 Tasmania, and New Caledonia, and also has the uncommon habit, for a sea 
 bird, of going far inland to lakes and swamps, where it seems perfectly at 
 home with the wild fowl. I remember first seeing these birds at Lake 
 Charm, in the Swan Hill district, Victoria, about 170 miles from the 
 nearest ocean beach. Kept as garden pets Silver Gulls become very tame, 
 and hunt over the ground for noxious insects, snails, and slugs. 
 
 The Crow (Corone australis Gould). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 475, No. 290 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 188, No. 389. 
 
 The family Corvidce comprises a number of large birds, popularly known 
 as Ravens, Crows, and Choughs, which at one time were all included in the 
 typical genus Corvus. They are distinguished by a stout compressed beak, 
 straight at the base, arched towards the point, and straight at the edges. 
 The wings and tail are long and graduated, the feet powerful, with the 
 metatarsus exceeding in length the middle toe of the foot. The sexes are 
 similar in colour, usually black and more or less glossed with green or purple 
 tints, except in the Jackdaw and Hooded Crow. Representatives of the 
 genus are found in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America as far south as 
 Mexico, and Australia. Thus widely distributed over the world, they can 
 stand all conditions of climate from the snow-clad mountains of Northern 
 Scotland to the sun-dried plains of central Australia. 
 
 Though the Australian bushman looks upon our birds as the one species 
 under the popular and comprehensive name of Crow or Carrion Crow, 
 among ornithologists there has always been a considerable amount of un- 
 certainty and difference of opinion regarding their classification. In describ- 
 ing our species, Gould, in his " Birds of Australia," called it Corvus coronoides, 
 but in his Handbook issued later on he changed it to Corvus australis^ 
 White-eyed Crow, and, though noting the Hazel-eyed Crow, considered 
 it only a variety of the typical form. He says : " It is intermediate 
 in size, in the development of the feathers of the throat, in its voice, in 
 many parts of its economy, between the Carrion Crow and the Raven in our 
 island (England), and it is difficult to say to which of these species it is 
 most nearly allied." 
 
 Since Gould's time, modern ornithologists have decided that though the 
 specific differences are vague^ we have not only two species the Crow and 
 Raven but they belong to different genera. Campbell, in his " Nests and 
 Eggs of Australian Birds," says there still exists some uncertainty about 
 identifying or separating our two species of crow, or the Crow from the 
 Raven. But if the chief points as first mentioned by Dr. Ramsay as far back 
 
About one-third natural size. 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 " WHITE=EYED CROW OR RAVEN." 
 
 Coronc australis. 
 

 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 69 
 
 as 1865, and afterwards de6ned by Dr. Sharps, are noted, the diffiaulties of 
 identification vanish : " The Raven (Cor one australis) is the larger bird, has 
 eyes white in the adult, wears conspicuous long feathers on the throat, and 
 has the base of the feathers in the hind part of the neck and back of a dusty- 
 brown or sooty colour. The true Crow (Corvus coronoides) has white eyes 
 likewise, but the base of the feathers is snow-white." Later on, however, 
 Campbell says : " As both have white eyes, the only sure method is by 
 handling the birds and deciding by the coloration of the feathers of the 
 neck and back. If they are brown or sooty it is a Raven, if white it is a 
 row." 
 
 In the latest handbook on our birds, (Messrs. Le Souef and Lucas), the 
 authors define them as follows: "The* Crow (Corvus coronoides) is the 
 Hazel-eyed Crow ; the Raven (Corone australis) is the White-eyed Crow " ; 
 but they at the same time say, in describing the latter, " the iris white or 
 dark brown." One could understand ornithologists making two species 
 {though this is doubtful when they breed together), but to place them in 
 different genera seems to point to the fact that some genera exist in name 
 only. There is also a third species described under the name of Small- 
 billed Crow (Corvus bennetti), peculiar to South Australia and New South 
 Wales, allied to the Carrion Crow, but smaller. In these notes I propose 
 to follow the bushman and treat them all just as crows; whether they 
 have white or brown eye?, or the down on the feathers of the back and neck 
 is dark-coloured or white, it makes no difference to their habits. 
 
 The value or otherwise of crows in Australia is one of those debatable 
 subjects that is a perennial source of correspondence from their admirers and 
 enemies in the stock and pastoral newspapers. At the monthly meetings of 
 the members of the Pastures Protection Boards, the business of paying a 
 standard bonus for crows' heads, and the price to be fixed per head, is 
 frequently a topic for heated discussion, while the following statement is 
 extracted from the Presidential address at an annual meeting of the Sheep 
 Breeders' Association in Sydney : "The crow is also again becoming very 
 troublesome, and how to deal with him is a question which divides many 
 minds, some being for wholesale destruction, others for preservation because 
 of his preying on vermin." 
 
 Though there are large numbers of stockowners who consider that crows 
 are not as black as they look and are more useful than harmful, and take no 
 active measures against them, others go to the length of protecting them on 
 account of their value in clearing up carrion and assisting to keep in check 
 the caterpillar and grasshopper plagues. On the other hand, the majority of 
 the coastal, as well as some of the inland sheep-owners, wage unceasing 
 warfare against the crow, and in the annual returns issued by the Stock 
 Branch of the New South Wales Department of Agriculture for the year 
 ending June, 1915, the sum of 2,862 2s. 3d. was given as the amount paid 
 by the officers of the Pastoral Boards of New South Wales for the heads of 
 109,344 crows. 
 
70 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 Many years ago I had opportunities of studying the habits of crows on the 
 plains between Echuca and Kerang, when looking after ewes and lambs in 
 times of drought in Victoria. I held no brief for the crow, and hated that 
 black, cruel, devilish bird, when I found the fallen ewe with her eyes picked 
 out and the helpless lamb standing beside her, with holes pecked in its taiL 
 One would often see a pair of particularly cunning crows separating a young 
 lamb from its bewildered mother, the first crow flying beside the scared, 
 running lamb, every now and then flapping its wings against the poor little 
 beast ; while the second crow would deliberately fly up behind and peck it on 
 the rump to hurry it away from the mob. At other times one would come 
 upon a lost lamb on the plains with a crow flapping round, and every now 
 and then giving a tug to its tail' to try and pull it to the ground. The 
 sheep-owners will tell you that a sheep or lamb pecked by crows, once down,, 
 seldom lives, and attribute it to the fact that crows are carrion feeders and 
 cause blood-poisoning. Of course, in bad times with starving stock, many 
 of the old ewes and lambs that get down would never recover, even in the 
 absence of the crows, but such facts do not have much weight with the sheep 
 man in the circumstances described. 
 
 The farmer dislikes crows quite as much as the squatter, and seldom has a^ 
 good word to say for them. If he runs sheep, he generally has more culls 
 and old sheep in proportion to the size of his flock, and they are the ones 
 that suffer from the crows. The crow is also an expert at stealing eggs, and 
 his depredations in the fowl-yard are only too well known by the housewife, 
 I used to visit a homestead on the plains in Victoria, where three crows 
 formed a syndicate to raid the fowl nests in the stable, where they had the 
 advantage of open gable-ends, giving a ready means of ingress and retreat. 
 Their method was as follows: The first crow flew into a she-oak tree overlooking 
 the house and stable, and finding all quiet, evidently sent back word, for the 
 second crow flew up and took observations while resting on the roof of the 
 stable ; a fresh signal was sent back, when the third crow flew up, hopped 
 down into the manger, snapped up the egg before the hen had finished 
 cackling, and flew away down the- paddock, followed by the two scouts. 
 Many traps and ambushes were laid for the egg-stealers, but as far as I 
 know my friend never managed to get the best of them. 
 
 The crow is accused, probably not without reason, of destroying the eggs 
 and nestlings of smaller birds, and it is quite evident that other birds do not 
 trust him, for at nesting time if a crow comes into the tree, all the smalt 
 birds join together to hustle and drive him away. 
 
 Having given some account of the bad habits of the crow, I will now 
 describe some of his good traits. It is worthy of note that the majority of 
 the squatters who wage war upon the crow belong to the coastal and 
 eastern portion of the State, while it is the men of the west who consider 
 that the work of scavenging and killing blow-fly maggots and other insect 
 pests outweighs any damage this bird does to their flocks. While there is no- 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 71 
 
 question as to the damage the crows, when numerous, do at lambing time, 
 particularly in a bad season when ewes arid lambs are weak and starved, 
 during the other portion of the year in the same districts the crow acts as an 
 effective scavenger in cleaning up offal, and destroys many noxious insects, 
 hunting over the paddocks like the magpie, and working very busily when a 
 cutworm army or a locust swarm appears in the district. 
 
 In the west the crow does yeoman service in the destruction of dead 
 carcases. I have seen many dead sheep so devoured that only the skin and 
 bones remained, half of the skin being almost intact ; dead rabbits are torn 
 to bits, and the maggots destroyed that would otherwise have entered the 
 ground and escaped. When a dead horse or bullock is skinned it is the 
 crows that set to work to strip the bones. In conBrmation of this, I would 
 append the following remarks, made by well-known pastoralists, in reply to a 
 circular sent out for information regarding the crow and the blow-fly pest : 
 
 Bourke. " I myself do not think that the crow is really harmful. I have 
 always regarded the crow as a good friend, in spite of the fact that he some- 
 times kills a weakling lamb, and perhaps hastens the death of a weak sheep. 
 I believe the first obvious step to take in mitigating the blow-fly pest is to 
 stop the destruction of the crow. He kills many rabbits, is the most effective 
 enemy of grasshoppers in certain stages, and is the best of scavengers. I 
 have no doubt he is the best natural enemy of the blow-fly." 
 
 Condobolin. "Consider the crow far and away the best scavenger and 
 destroyer of maggots. The magpie comes next." 
 
 Coonamble. "The crow is the only bird that I know of that would do 
 any good. He would destroy the carcase by eating and pulling it about. 
 If we had the millions of crows that have been killed, we would not be 
 troubled with the blow-;fly." 
 
 Canonbar. " I am inclined to protect the crow, except during lambing 
 time. They do much good." 
 
 "Crowfoot," writing in the Pastoral Review upon " Bird Friends," says : 
 " I must not close without putting in a good word for the crow. He is a 
 friend in disguise, notwithstanding his cruelty to lambs and weak sheep. 
 If they would only leave the ' woollies ' alone, they would be as sacred as 
 the ibis and kingfisher in the flock-owner's mind, but as it is ' no license ' 
 is bracketed against the name of crow. If all the locusts' eggs, grubs, 
 caterpillars, and food that maggots love to dwell in were balanced against 
 the lambs and grown sheep crows destroy, the balance would be strongly in 
 their favour." 
 
 In conclusion, I would quote Mr. W. E. Abbott, of Wingen, who has 
 always been a firm friend of the crow. After telling how he has found the 
 remains of dead sheep picked clean by the crows, he says : "It seems to me 
 that one crow with its unequalled sense of sight and smell and power of 
 locomotion, would be worth more than 100 men, whose work could not be 
 
72 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 supervised (in destroying dead carcases). The 100 men would cost at least 
 .200 a week, and a crow would keep himself to a small extent on eggs or 
 chickens, and a few weak lambs or old sheep in times of drought." 
 
 The bushman, while he is interested in the knowing ways of the cosmo- 
 politan crow, does not particularly love that bird, but in his wanderings 
 comes across him in all parts of the continent. It wakens him with its 
 mocking mournful cry when sick and weary in his lonely camp. If he 
 happens to get lost in the scrub, hunting for his horses, away from water, 
 the crows appear, and the inflections in their call seem to distinctly change. 
 No longer is the sound a sharp clear caw-caw the notes are long and drawn 
 out, seeming to the bewildered traveller to say in evil tone, " When are you 
 going to die DIE ? " 
 
 Many are the stories told round the camp, regarding the wisdom of the 
 crow how when an inquisitive crow arrives at a camp where the traveller 
 is resting under the trees apparently asleep, it will pick up a bit of dry bark 
 in its beak, and flying up into the gum-tree, drop it on the face of the 
 sleeper to see if he is really asleep or only shamming, before it ventures to 
 come around and pick up the scraps. 
 
 The outback bushman will tell you he has seen a crow when it has dis- 
 covered the unprotected eggs in an emu's nest among the saltbush, hunt 
 .round for a stone, pick it up in its claws, and hovering over the nest, drop 
 the stone among the eggs, and thus secure an ample dinner. This story may 
 be quite correct there is very little a wary old western crow does not know 
 but it lacks confirmation. 
 
 In conclusion, it will be s r en that, like other of our insectivorous birds, the 
 crow has a dual character. While he is one of our most useful insectivorous 
 birds, and by far the best clearier-up of offal and carrion in Australia, and 
 taking his work all over the State, does far more good than harm, yet he 
 may become a very serious local pest. This usually comes about through 
 an undue increase in their numbers in a certain district, and the consequent 
 failure of their food supplies. Under a properly adjusted bird protection 
 act, the crow, while enjoying the protection he merits in his own district, 
 could easily be proclaimed a pest when he begins his attack upon lambs and 
 lambing ewes in the district where he is doing the damage. 
 
 The White-winged Chough or Black Magpie (Corcorax melanorhamphus 
 
 Vieill). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 47, No. 288 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 189, No. 391. 
 This bird is known under several different names. In the open forests of 
 northern Victoria it used to be called the Black Magpie, or the Chattering 
 Jay, both of which give one some idea of the bird. 
 
 It is not a coastal bird, but is found in open forest land and ranges in 
 to the interior, where, family parties of from five to a dozen or more 
 scatter over the ground, turning over bits of bark, sticks, and leaves as 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 "THE WHITE-WINGED CHOUGH" 
 
 (The Black Magpie or Chattering Jay). 
 Corcorax melanorhamphus. 
 
\ 
 
INSECTIVOROUS Bmrs OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " BABBLER." 
 Pomatostomus superciliosus, Vig. and Hors. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 73 
 
 they move along. Its curious, harsh chattering cry, with a mournful 
 wailing note, is quite unlike that of any other bird of the forest. When dis- 
 turbed it flies up into the trees, its jet black plumage showing up the large 
 white patch in the centre of the wing, which is hidden when at rest. Its 
 somewhat large tail seems to overbalance it as it settles on a branch, 
 and its bright red eyes give it a very alert look as it peers down at 
 you from the branches above. 
 
 I was first acquainted with the Black Magpie in the forest covering 
 the low granite Terrick and Mount Hope Ranges in northern Victoria, 
 and have met the birds in many parts of western and northern New 
 South Wales lately, all along the Barwon River. They are well known 
 in South Australia and Queensland. 
 
 Their nesting habits are remarkable, for they are among the few large 
 birds that use clay for making their nests. These are constructed like a 
 rounded basin, nearly 9 inches in diameter and slightly over 6 inches in 
 depth. The clay used in their construction is usually matted together with 
 grass stalks, and well lined with feathers. The number of eggs laid is 
 variable, ranging from five to eight, and they are dull-white, thickly blotched 
 with dull-slate colour and olive-brown. The nesting time is from August 
 to December. In its native state the Black Magpie seldom leaves the open 
 forest or river banks to which its hunting is confined, and where a flock must 
 destroy an enormous number of insects every year. 
 
 The White-browed Babbler (Po.natorhinus superciliosa Vig. and Horsf .) 
 Oould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 482, No. 294 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 131, No. 274. 
 
 The White-browed Babbler is found all over the inland portion of the 
 southern half of Australia and ranges into northern Queensland and the 
 Northern Territory. Whenever a traveller pitches his camp where there is 
 timber and water about, he is sure to be inspected in the early morning by 
 a family party of these fussy, chattering, restless birds.^ Their call r note can 
 be translated into " Follow rue, follow me" ; ahtf akjtiieV frequjeitly fly one 
 after the other, the bushman commonly knew-s them aA "follow, me," . They 
 are handsome birds, with slender heads, bright" ejres,. a "white 'line abov'e the 
 eyes, and large tails. They never seem to be at rest or to stop hunting over 
 the ground for insects. If one gives a call, off they go one after the other, 
 to fly into a tree, run up and down the branches and chatter, and then 
 suddenly to cluster together, fluff out their feathers and scatter again. 
 When on one occasion camped on a creek near Moree, we had a party that 
 used to fly up to our tent regularly every morning just after daylight ; 
 they would often chase each other between the tent and the fly above, to 
 give us their morning greeting, and to pick up the stray moths that were 
 sheltering there. 
 
74 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 The nests of these birds are placed in exposed positions in gum trees, and 
 are large domed structures formed with dried sticks. The basal portion is a 
 rounded basin with a stouter portion built up behind and projecting on the 
 sides and above, thus forming a rounded roof over the entrance into the nest 
 on the side. They often build several nests in the same clump of trees, and 
 the community take an interest in each other's work, even if they do not 
 actually assist each other in the building. The interior of the nest is deeply 
 lined with feathers and other soft material, and contains four light-brown 
 eggs clouded with darker brown and purple, streaked with fine hair-like 
 lines running round the egg, but sometimes more marbled. 
 
 The Grey-crowned Babbler (Pomatorhinus temporalis Vig. and Horsf.), 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 479, No. 292 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 130, No. 273. 
 
 Like the species just described, the Grey-crowned Babblers have a wide 
 range over the south and eastern portion of Australia, from Queensland 
 through New South Wales and Victoria, into South Australia. They are 
 gregarious, travelling about in small flocks of about a dozen or more, 
 following each other and having a similar chattering call to that of the 
 previous species. They have been overloaded with popular names most of 
 them (such as Chatterer and Cackler) suggestive of their call-notes, some 
 (the Hopper and Jumper) on account of their curious movements, and some 
 (like Yahoo, Happy Jack, and Apostle-bird) on account of their gregarious 
 habits. Some enthusiastic Victorian bird-man wanted to have the name 
 Codlin-moth Eater attached to this bird, because an orchardist near Summer- 
 ville found them in an apple orchard, presumably looking for codlin-moth 
 grubs. Anyone who knows the forest-loving habits of these birds, and the 
 peculiarities of the codlin-moth, would not expect to obtain much relief from 
 the pest by their casual presence in the orchard. They are insectivorous 
 birds ; but they feed upon small beetles or larvae found under the dead bark 
 on tree trunks, or under the cow-dung or bits of bark and wood they turn 
 over on the ground. 
 
 The Grey-crowned Babbler makes a large nest, similar to that of the 
 White-browed Babbler, with overhanging sticks above the opening. It is 
 placed in the fork of a tree, and often two or three nests are near each other. 
 The irnnber of curious, da?-k brown, hair-streaked eggs in the clutch varies 
 so much tha,t some collectors state that ten or more eggs may be found in one 
 nest, and that two or three birds lay their eggs together. 
 
 The Apostle-bird (Struthidea cinerea Gould). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 472, No. 289 ; Leach's Bird Book, p.- 188, No. 390. 
 Those quaint gregarious noisy birds are to be found all over the open forest 
 and scrub lands of the inland portion of New South Wales, ranging south 
 and north through Queensland into the Northern Territory. The first 
 district I noted them in was near Wagga, but I have never seen them in 
 similar country in Victoria. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 "THE GREY=CROWNED BABBLER." 
 
 Pomatorhinus temporalis, Vig. <^r Horsf. 
 
 "THE APOSTLE BIRD." 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 "SACRED KINGFISHER." 
 
 Halcyon sanctus, Vig. & Hors. 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 75 
 
 Struthidea cinerea is the sole representative of this genus peculiar to Aus- 
 tralia, and a species, says Gould, that is one of the most anomalous in our 
 avifauna. He remarks upon the curious short, blunt, formation of the bill, 
 and suggests that it is well adapted for extracting seeds out of the cones of 
 the desert cypress pine. Though in southern Riverina this bird was at one 
 time known under the popular name of Pine-pigeon, it was not on account 
 of its food habits, but because of its general occurrence in the sand ridges 
 clothed with cypress pine. Though these birds are seed-eating as well aa 
 insectivorous, I have never seen them eating pine seeds, and doubt if any 
 bird would eat them unless starving. 
 
 One of the most unsuitable popular names ever given to a bird is that of 
 the Grey Log- jumper, given by several popular writers to this bird and 
 perpetuated in Lucas and Le Souef's " Birds of Australia." Quite a number 
 of birds are known under the names of Apostle-bird, Twelve Apostles, and 
 Happy Family in different parts of the country ; but our friend goes by the 
 first-mentioned all through its western range. I think that the name 
 fits it, for these birds are very often in flocks of ten or twelve, confer- 
 ring together in what might possibly be the apostolic manner. At all camps, 
 particularly where horses are fed, a flock of Apostle-birds will come round 
 sometime during the day, chattering and scolding away at each other, and 
 even trying to peck holes in the bags of chaff and grain. A party of twelve 
 once attached themselves to our camp at Yarrawin, Brewarrina ; they 
 hopped about in front of our dining tent at meal times, and picked up scraps 
 thrown to them, even coming under the seats for crumbs. One, the head of 
 the party probably, frequently stood up against a post a short distance off y 
 and several of the others took bits of bread and meat and put them into his. 
 mouth. We cyanided a large mount-ant's nest close to the tent, and broke 
 the surface with a pick ; our Apostle-birds spent many busy hours scratching 
 up the remains of the nest and eating the dead pupal ants. Very of ten,, 
 when we were camping out in the scrub for our midday lunch, a flock of 
 these birds would come flying up and perch on a branch just above our 
 heads, sitting side by side, chattering and fluttering their feathers as they 
 peered down at us. As soon as we moved away they would come down and 
 clear up all crumbs and scraps. This bird has the curious habit, shared by 
 the Magpie-lark, and the Chattering Jay, of constructing a solid, stout, 
 circular clay nest upon a stout limb of a gum-tree. In this she deposits four 
 white eggs, blotched with reddish-brown and purplish-grey. 
 
 The Sacred Kingfisher (Halcyon sanctus Vig. and Horsf.). 
 Gould!s. Handbook, vol. I, p. 128, No. 63 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 106, No. 223. 
 This is one of the kingfishers that, though sometimes found in the vicinity 
 of creeks, is hardly a fisherman, for he is more often miles away from water 
 in open forest or scrub, where his chief food supply is ground game such as 
 small lizards, moths, beetles, and ants. Gould says that in the vicinity of 
 salt marshes this bird feeds upon small crabs and other crustaceans. 
 
76 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 This species has a wide range over the whole of Australia and Tasmania, 
 but in the winter migrates into the northern districts of New South Wales 
 and Queensland. Outside Australia it is found in New Guinea, the Solomons, 
 New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and the Malay Archipelago. 
 
 Though not so brilliantly tinted as the little Azure Kingfisher on the river 
 bank the Sacred Kingfisher is a striking little bird, with greenish-blue cap and 
 -coat, white collar, and buff waistcoat. Its nest is made in various situations 
 adapted to the locality in which its owners have taken up their quarters, 
 such as a hollow spout in a branch of a gum-tree, or a hole drilled into a 
 decayed bole where there is a " negro head " white-ants' nest on the tree 
 stem. A cavity is excavated in the side of the nest and the eggs are laid on 
 the floor of decayed wood. The eggs, four or five in number, are very round, 
 like those of most kingfishers, and pure-white. When nesting the birds 
 are very pugnacious, and often have to fight the big monitor lizards, which 
 eat their eggs and nestlings. At such times the birds' angry call-note is 
 easily recognised. 
 
 In earlier works this bird was known as Toderhamphus aanctus ; but later 
 authorities placed it in the typical genus Halcyon, which is the old classical 
 name of the kingfisher. The (Greeks looked upon the kingfisher as a bird of 
 good omen, who built her nest on the crest of the ocean wave, which had to 
 keep smooth while she was nesting hence " halcyon days." The feathers of 
 the kingfisher were also treasured by them as a charm or amulet. 
 
 The Naikeen Kestrel (Cerchneis cencroides Vig. and Horsf.). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 35, No. 13 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 83, No. 173. 
 
 This is one of the smallest of our hawks, and before settlement destroyed 
 the hunting grounds of our birds of prey it was a very common sight to see 
 several hovering over the plain, their wings moving so rapidly that they 
 appeared to be almost stationary. 
 
 The farmer is very prone to regard all hawks as enemies of f he fowl-yard, 
 and under this impression has shot many of this species, but the I have 
 never known this hawk to meddle with chickens, though the Sparrow-hawk, 
 which is about the same size, often makes a raid on the poultry-yard and 
 oarries off a young chicken. The food of the Nankeen Kestrel is chiefly small 
 grass lizards, young snakes, and grasshoppers when swarming on the plains. 
 Many years ago, when riding across the Terrick Plains in Northern Victoria, 
 I saw a pair of Nankeen Kestrels hovering in the air in their characteristic 
 attitude with a long streamer hanging from the claws of one of the birds ; 
 while watching them the object dropped from the hawk, and riding up I 
 iound lying on the grass a young brown snake, over eighteen inches in length, 
 battered and dead. 
 
 This hawk, though it often occupies the deserted nests of crows and 
 magpies, frequently lays its four or five rather rounded, reddish-brown eggs, 
 blotched with darker brown, in the hollow spout of the overhanging branch 
 
About one-third natural size. 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 " NANKEEN KESTREL." 
 
 Cerchneis (Tinnunculus} cencroides. 
 
, 
 
 . .,:/% 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 77 
 
 of a gum-tree. I once had such a nest under observation on the Murray 
 swamps from the time the eggs were laid until I carried off the almost 
 fledged nestlings. The tree was low, and the projecting branch broad where 
 the end had broken off, so that the end was like a stove-pipe with plenty of 
 decayed wood on the floor, and among this the eggs were laid. It was 
 possible to lie along this limb and to look into the hollow, and even to handle 
 the bright-eyed savage little Kestrels, who would strike out with their talons 
 when very small. As the nesting place was on the daily route, many 
 visits were paid during the upbringing of the family, and nearly always the 
 floor of the nest contained portions of grass snakes, slow-worms, or lizards ; 
 once or twice the feathers of a nestling Magpie-lark suggested that the food 
 supplies had not run short. In captivity the nestlings ate meat quite 
 naturally, and when placed in an aviary, where in the adjoining compart- 
 ment were some doves, one of them tried to seize the doves' wings when they 
 came too close to the partition. 
 
 At the present time the Nankeen Kestrel is appearing again on the open 
 timbered plains, and in the New England district during a day's ride one may 
 often notice half a dozen or more of these graceful birds flying round or 
 resting upon a dead branch, the white, grey, brown, black, and cinnamon 
 tints being harmoniously blended into the nankeen tints that give this little 
 hawk its popular and appropriate name. As this bird, unlike many of our 
 birds of prey, always kills it own food, and does not touch carrion, it has not 
 suffered from the deadly poison cart and dingo baits. 
 
 As evidence of its value as an insectivorous bird it may be mentioned that 
 Lucas and Le Soeuf, in "Birds- of Australia," state that the food consists of 
 lizards and insects, while Campbell states that " the Nankeen Kestrel is almost 
 insectivorous in diet, and has another prominent virtue in that it kills small 
 snakes." 
 
 The Wedge-tailed Eagle ( Urocetus audax Latham). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 8, No. 1 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 81, No. 158. 
 
 This is one of the largest eagles in the world, measuring from 7 to 8 feet 
 from tip to tip of the outspread wings. It is therefore much to be regretted 
 that the popular name of Eagle-hawk should have been given to it by our 
 early settlers. The Wedge-tailed Eagle has a wide range over Tasmania and 
 Australia, is a keen hunter, and, under natural conditions, captures and kills 
 wallabies and other marsupials, flying often at a great height and then 
 swooping down upon its prey. These birds have regular beats, as can be 
 seen from the size of their nests, which are usually built in the fork of a tall 
 gum-tree, and are added to every year they often contain a dray-load of 
 stout sticks. The hollo wed-out centre contains a pair of dark mottled eggs, 
 or a pair of bright-eyed, fierce-taloned babies. 
 
 The Wedge-tailed Eagle is frequently charged with killing lambs, and not 
 without cause at times ; but only certain starved eagles driven from their 
 hunting ground aie such culprits. The natural food of this eagle is ground 
 
78 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 game and freshly-skinned or killed animals. In a nest examined near Uralla 
 I found the remains of three hares, one opossum, two rabbits, and Ihe skins 
 of two fox cubs about a foot long, and in this case there were plenty of 
 lambing ewes in the paddock where the birds were nesting. When once 
 seen, this great bird, with its blackish-brown plumage, edged along the 
 feathers with pale brown, cannot be mistaken for any other species, and, 
 under ordinary conditions on the western stations, they become comparatively 
 tame, and take very little notice of man. There is no reason why, where 
 birds like our great eagle and the allied hawks are doing no harm, they 
 should not have the benefit of protection laws on account of their value as 
 scavengers. It is a very simple matter to place them on the black list in 
 every district where they are found killing lambs or poultry, and destroy all 
 those that have acquired these bad habits. 
 
 The Brown Tree-creeper (Climacteris scandens Tem.). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 598, No. 366 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 155, No. 331. 
 
 All through the open forest country of Queensland and the southern half 
 of Australia, particularly along the river gums and open box forests, you will 
 find this curious little reddish-brown bird flitting from tree to tree, generally 
 alighting on the base of the stem and running up it to the branches. When 
 flying, the light reddish markings on the wings are very conspicuous. On 
 the ground its mode of progression is by a series of hops. It is a friendly little 
 bird about one's camp. We had numbers of them round our Experiment 
 Station near Hay, which was between the river gums and an open box forest 
 running out into the plain beyond ; such country is the kind they love. 
 
 It is a busy, insectivorous bird, catching insects both on the ground and 
 on tree trunks, and utters a sharp, shrill cry as if frightened when startled 
 as it is running up a tree trunk. 
 
 The nest of these birds is of soft hair, feathers, or wool. In the Murray 
 frontages, when opossums were plentiful, the little builders used to pick fur 
 from the sleeping opossum and carry it down into the hollow stem or branch 
 in which they had formed their nesting places ; here they would deposit two 
 reddish eggs, thickly blotched with reddish-brown. 
 
 The Orange-Winged Nut-hatch (Neositta chrysoptera Swains.). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 609, No. 373 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 153, No. 328. 
 
 The Orange-winged Nut-hatch was originally described in the old genus 
 Sittella, which contains the European nut-hatches. Campbell lists seven 
 species described from Australia. This one, typical of the group, has a wide 
 range from Queensland, through New South Wales and Victoria into South 
 Australia, and it inhabits the open forest country. 
 
 These birds are gregarious, forming small family parties up to about eight 
 in number, running about over the limbs of the trees and twisting about 
 among the foliage hunting for insects, spiders, homoptera, small beetles, and 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES 
 
 " BROWN TREE=CREEPER." 
 
 Climacteris scandens, Temm. 
 

 
 V* 1 ' 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " ORANGE=WINGED TREE-RUNNER." 
 
 Neositta chrysoptera, Latham. 
 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 " BELL-BIRD." 
 Oreoica cristata, Lewin. 
 
* ' V' J f c-"* v ''' ?* < o* 
 ' o f t * c e'v t' c 6 w 
 
SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 79 
 
 larvae, most of which are probably found under the loose scaley bark on the 
 tree trunks. They have a quick short flight from tree to tree, and do not 
 travel long distances ; when flying, the orange markings on the wings stand 
 out from the otherwise dull reddish-brown plumage. Dr. George Bennett, 
 who wrote a great deal upon his personal observations on Australian birds in 
 his " Gatherings of a Naturalist," describes (and gives a wood-cut of) the 
 nest and eggs of the Orange- winged Nut-hatch. The nest is a very dainty 
 structure, cup-shaped, with a slender base blending into the foundation on 
 the tree, and built up so that it fits into the fork and against the branch. It 
 is comprised of spiders' webs and cocoons, with the outer surface coated with 
 bits of bark placed on the sides to fit in with the formation of the bark of 
 the branch. The nest is deep and lined with soft material. The eggs consist 
 of three in a clutch, and are greyish-white, blotched and spotted with slate- 
 grey and sepia. 
 
 It seems a great pity that when a bird can be named from its family group 
 like the Orange-winged Nut-hatch that our bird-men should have adopted 
 such an indecisive name as O range- winged Tree-runner. 
 
 The Crested Bell-bird (Oreoica cristata Lewin). 
 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 231, No. 131 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 151, No. 321. 
 
 This bird has an extended range right across Australia from east to west, 
 but is not found in Tasmania., It is non-migratory, arid is found in pairs all 
 over the open forest and scrub country inland, but nowhere in numbers. It is a 
 rather large, active, scrub bird, feeding and living chiefly upon the ground, 
 where it finds most of its food such as seeds, beetles, and grubs. When 
 disturbed it flies upward into the adjacent trees. 
 
 Gilbert sent Gould the following description of the notes of this remarkable 
 bird, which he said was a perfect ventriloquist : "At first its note commences 
 in so low a note that it seems as if at a considerable distance, and then 
 gradually increases in volume until it appears over the head of the wondering 
 hearer, the bird that utters it being all the while on the dead part of a tree, 
 perhaps not more than a few yards distant. Its motionless attitude renders 
 its discovery very difficult. It has two kinds of song, the most usual of 
 which is a running succession of notes, or two notes repeated together rather 
 slowly, followed by a repetition three times rather quickly, the last note 
 resembling the sound of a bell from its ringing tone ; the other song is 
 pretty nearly the same, only that it concludes with a sudden and peculiar 
 fall of two notes." 
 
 The Crested Bell-bird's nest is cup-shaped, deep, and composed of strips of 
 bark and leaves, lined inside with softer material. It contains three, four, 
 and sometimes five bluish-white eggs, blotched with dark olive-green, and in 
 3ome specimens almost with black. Campbell records Barnard's observations 
 that in north Queensland the birds have the habit of placing hairy cater- 
 pillars in and around the nest. From his description the writer thinks that 
 
80 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 
 
 these hairy caterpillars are the larvae of bag-shelter moths, often very common 
 in the scrub country, where they defoliate the wattle trees. It is probable 
 that these are the cast skins, and not the caterpillars themselves. 
 
 The little Bell-bird (Manorhina melanophrys\ with its musical sharp 
 "clink, clink," is quite a different bird; it is confined to forest belts near 
 the coast, and is very local in its range. * It is a little olive-green and golden- 
 yellow honey-eater, and lives in small communities in the tops of the gum- 
 trees. 
 
 The White-fronted Chat (Ephthianura albifrons Jardin and Selb.). 
 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 374, No. 229 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 133, No. 281. 
 
 A denizen of our open plains and often numerous along the edges of water- 
 courses and lignum swamps, this semi-gregarious little bird has a wide range 
 over Australia and Tasmania, and though in the south, migratory, it is to be 
 found all the year round in some parts of the State. Providing water is 
 obtainable, it inhabits the saltbush plains of the west and north-west in the 
 early summer, and, in common with its two more brilliantly tinted relations, 
 is known as the " saltbush-bird." 
 
 The White-fronted Chat builds a small cup-shaped nest composed of grass 
 and rootlets, lined with hair and feathers, and usually placed in a low bush 
 not far from the ground, often in the settled districts in dead thistles ; in thi& 
 well concealed nest she lays from three to four eggs. 
 
 The male, with his white throat and black-banded chest (replaced by greyish- 
 brown and yellow in the less noticeable females), might at first sight be- 
 taken for a Sandpiper as it runs along, uttering its plaintive call-note, but it 
 can be easily distinguished on closer observation by its different build. It is 
 generally very active towards evening, and if surprised near its nest is very 
 cunning in pretending to be sick or wounded while leading one away in the: 
 opposite direction. 
 
 The beautiful Orange-fronted Chat (E. aurifrons), with its rich, golden,, 
 orange-yellow head and breast, and the Red Chat (E. tricolor) are both rarer 
 birds than the White-fronted Chat, but in the early summer I have 
 often seen all three species in a day's drive across the saltbush plains near 
 Brewarrina. 
 
* 
 , 
 
 * I 
 
 Slightly under half-size. 
 
 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 "WHITE=FRONTED CHAT." 
 
 Ephthianura albifrons. 
 

 
81 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 32 
 41 
 29 
 74 
 34 
 33 
 33 
 47 
 47 
 58 
 36 
 29 
 44 
 13 
 75 
 
 73 
 45 
 47 
 79 
 79 
 54 
 43 
 72 
 24 
 64 
 55 
 26 
 49 
 63 
 49 
 54 
 54 
 56 
 14 
 28 
 31 
 33 
 66 
 54 
 33 
 54 
 47 
 22 
 30 
 52 
 22 
 47 
 78 
 56 
 40 
 47 
 41 
 62 
 58 
 
 c 
 
 Cackler 
 
 I'AGK' 
 
 74 
 30 
 43 
 54 
 54 
 64 
 68 
 54 
 56 
 56 
 76 
 30 
 31 
 80 
 80 
 80 
 74 
 72 
 22 
 54 
 36, 53 
 68 
 72 
 52 
 78 
 40 
 43 
 43 
 36 
 31 
 74 
 49 
 54 
 72 
 68 
 68 
 68 
 68 
 G6 
 64 
 56 
 66 
 79 
 50 
 51 
 53 
 68 
 54 
 68 
 68 
 68 
 68 
 68 
 26 
 30 
 30 
 30 
 30 
 30 
 
 Albert Lvre-bird 
 
 Cacomantis flabelliformis 
 
 A nthus australis 
 
 Calyptorhynchus funereus 
 
 \postle-bird 
 
 Campepha^a humeralis . 
 
 Ai\a nas pzrsona!' s 
 sordidus 
 
 Campephaga, White -shouldered 
 Carphibis (Geronticis) spinicollis 
 Carrion Crow 
 
 fttpcfdliosus 
 
 \tlic,n& booboofc 
 
 Caterpillar-eater, White -shouldered ... 
 
 Ccntropus . 
 
 
 Bustard 
 
 phasianus . 
 
 - Miner . 
 
 Cerchneis cencroides 
 
 Pipet .. 
 
 Chalcococcyx (Lamprococcyx) plagosus 
 Channel- bill ... 
 
 Roller 
 
 Snipe .. . . 
 
 Chat, Orange -fronted 
 
 \zure Kingfisher 
 
 Red 
 
 B 
 
 White -fronted 
 
 Chatterer 
 
 Chattering Jay .. 
 
 Cheramonca leucostereum 
 
 Cherry-hawk 
 
 
 Cherry-picker 
 
 
 Chough 
 
 Up]] Ki rf l 
 
 White-winged 
 
 
 Cinclosoma punctatum 
 
 
 Climacteris scandens 
 
 
 Coach-whip bird 
 
 
 Cockatoo, Black 
 
 
 - Yellow-eared 
 
 Thi<s 
 
 Cockney 
 
 T^nhin 
 
 Cocktail 
 
 
 Codlin-moth Eater 
 
 
 Collyriocincla harmonica 
 
 Plover 
 
 Coracina robusta 
 
 
 Cor cor ax melanorhamphus 
 
 
 Gorone australis 
 
 
 Corwdce 
 
 
 Corvus australis 
 
 Black-tailed Native-hen 
 Blight-bird 
 
 bennetti 
 coronoides 
 
 Blue Wren 
 Blue-bird 
 
 melanops 
 Coucal, Pheasant 
 
 Blue-crane .. 
 
 Crested Bell-bird 
 
 Blue-jay 
 
 Shrike -tit 
 
 Blue-martin 
 
 Cr&ocincla lunulata 
 
 Blue-pigeon 
 
 Crimson -throated Honey-eater 
 
 Boobook Owl 
 
 Crow .... 
 
 Bottle-nest Swallow .. 
 
 Black-faced 
 
 Bronze Cuckoo .. 
 
 - Carrion 
 
 Bronze- wing Pigeon 
 
 Hazel-eyed 
 
 Brown Flycatcher 
 
 Hooded 
 
 Owl.. 
 
 Small billed 
 
 Tree-creeper 
 
 
 Brown's Wren 
 
 
 Brush-turkey 
 
 Cuckoo Bronze 
 
 Buck-buck .. 
 
 Fantailcd 
 
 Buln-buln 
 
 Greater 
 
 I'm r'n in >/.- (/rdllnritt* 
 
 Lesser 
 
 Bustard, Australian 
 
 - Pallid . 
 
 t 97615 D 
 
 
82 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cuckoo-owl 
 
 I'AGE. 
 
 47 
 
 Glossy Ibis 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 64 
 
 Cuckoo-shrike, Black-faced . 
 
 54 
 
 Goatsucker 
 
 48 
 
 Cuculus pctllidus 
 
 30 
 
 Golden-breasted \Vhistler 
 
 49 
 
 pJidsio/nus . 
 
 56 
 
 Grctllina picata 
 
 25 
 
 Curlew, Land . 
 
 62 
 
 Grape - bird 
 
 28 
 
 Cyaneus 
 
 31 
 
 (rTdnccilus melctnops 
 
 54 
 
 Cycmodildmys 
 
 31 
 
 Great Brown Kingfisher 
 
 37 
 
 
 
 Greater Cuckoo 
 
 30 
 
 D 
 
 
 Grey Log-jumper 
 
 74 
 
 
 07 
 
 Shrike-thrush 
 
 49 
 
 
 37 
 
 Grey-crowned Babbler 
 
 ,74 
 
 yt,yws ^ 
 
 07 
 
 Grinder 
 
 23 
 
 
 07 
 
 Ground Dove 
 
 52 
 
 T)p1lPfltA Owl 
 
 4.K 
 
 Ground Lark 
 
 29 
 
 Ttiam/Ynrl Kiwi Qr^rfforl 
 
 CO 
 
 Ground Thrush 
 
 51 
 
 
 KJ 
 
 Ground-bird, Spotted 
 
 52 
 
 TV\llnr V|irr1 
 
 44 
 
 Gull, Pacific 
 
 67 
 
 
 KO 
 
 Gull, Silver 
 
 67 
 
 
 
 Gymnhorhintt tibicen 
 
 29 
 
 E 
 
 Eagle, Wedge-tailed 
 
 77 
 
 
 
 Eagle-hawk 
 
 77 
 
 H 
 
 
 EopSdltTlOj .... . 
 
 55 
 
 Halcyon sanctus ^ 
 
 76 
 
 .. uustTctlis . ... 
 
 55 
 
 Happy Family ... . . . . . 
 
 74 
 
 EphthittwuTtt dlbifrofis , 
 
 80 
 
 Jack 
 
 74 
 
 dufiffons 
 
 80 
 
 Harmonius Thrush 
 
 47 
 
 tficoloT . 
 
 80 
 
 Hawk, Eagle .. 
 
 77 
 
 Eupodotis CLUstTcilis 
 
 58 
 
 Sparrow . 
 
 76 
 
 European Barn Owl 
 
 45 
 
 Hazel-eyed Crow 
 
 68 
 
 Euvystomus austTctlis 
 
 44 
 
 Heron, Nankeen. 
 
 66 
 
 EuTostopodus c/utttttus 
 
 48 
 
 ' Nankeen Night 
 
 66 
 
 EuTostopus cilbigulttTis 
 
 48 
 
 White -fronted.. 
 
 66 
 
 ttfOUS . 
 
 48 
 
 Hirundo ncoxenci , , 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 Honey-eater, Crimson-throated . 
 
 53 
 
 F. 
 
 
 Honey-sucker . 
 
 15 
 
 
 22 
 
 Hooded Crow 
 
 68 
 
 
 Kf) 
 
 Robin 
 
 55 
 
 
 KA 
 
 Hopper 
 
 74 
 
 Falcui^ulus frontatus 
 
 KA 
 
 Hylochelidon 
 
 22 
 
 Fantail Black-and-white . . 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 Fantailed Cuckoo 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 - Flycatcher . 
 
 24 
 
 I 
 
 
 Fawn-breasted Kingfisher 
 
 37 
 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 Ibis, Black-and-white 
 
 64 
 
 
 
 Glossy 
 
 64 
 
 Fig-bird 
 
 28 
 
 
 
 Flame-breasted Robin 
 
 35 
 4.Q 
 
 New Holland 
 -Sacred 
 
 64 
 
 Brown 
 
 22 
 
 Straw-necked 
 
 64 
 
 
 
 * White . 
 
 64 
 
 Fan tailed 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 Restless 
 
 23 
 
 Ibis melucca 
 
 64 
 
 " Follow me " 
 
 73 
 
 spinicollis 
 
 64 
 
 
 
 Indian Minah 
 
 36 
 
 Frogmouth 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 Frontal-shrike . . 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 G 
 
 67 
 
 J 
 
 37 
 
 
 13 
 
 Jackdaw . 
 
 68 
 
 
 64 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 32 
 
 
 54 
 
 
 51 
 
 Chattering . 
 
 72 
 
 Oeronticus . . . 
 
 64 
 
 Jumper. ... 
 
 74 
 
INDEX. 
 
 83 
 
 K 
 
 Keets Green 
 
 PAGE. 
 16 
 
 Motacilla Southern 
 
 TAGK. 
 
 56 
 
 Kestrel Nankeen 
 
 7G 
 
 Moth-owl 
 
 48 
 
 Kingfisher Azure 
 
 75 
 
 Mountain Thrush 
 
 51 
 
 Fawn-breasted 
 
 37 
 
 Mountain-pheasant 
 
 41 
 
 Great Brown 
 
 37 
 
 Myzantha garrula . 
 
 30 
 
 Leach's 
 
 37 
 
 
 
 Sacred 
 
 75 
 
 
 
 Kookaburra . 
 
 37 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nankeen Heron 
 
 66 
 
 
 
 Kestrel 
 
 76 
 
 
 
 
 (/; 
 
 L 
 
 
 Native Wood-pheasant 
 
 41 
 
 
 ^4 
 
 Native-hen, Black- tailed 
 
 14 
 
 
 KA 
 
 Xeositta chrysoptera 
 
 78 
 
 
 on 
 
 New Holland Ibis 
 
 64 
 
 
 an 
 
 Vulture 
 
 40 
 
 
 29 
 
 Night Heron, Nankeen 
 
 66 
 
 
 an 
 
 Nightgar, Spotted 
 
 48 
 
 
 07 
 
 White-throated 
 
 48 
 
 
 07 
 
 Ninox boobook 
 
 47 
 
 
 KA 
 
 Norfolk Plover 
 
 62 
 
 
 60 
 
 Notophoyx novce-hollandice 
 
 66 
 
 
 30 
 
 Nut-hatch, Orange-winged 
 
 78 
 
 
 fiO 
 
 Nycticorax caledonicus 
 
 66 
 
 Log- jumper, Grey 
 
 74 
 
 
 
 Lowan 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 Lyre-bird 
 
 41 
 
 
 56 
 
 -Albert 
 
 41 
 
 
 49 
 
 Victorian 
 
 41 
 
 Orange-fronted Chat 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 Orange-winged Nut-hatch 
 
 78 
 
 
 
 Tree -runner. 
 
 78 
 
 
 
 OTBOICCI CTistcitd . 
 
 79 
 
 
 
 Otid<b 
 
 58 
 
 Magpie 
 
 26 
 
 Owl Boobook 
 
 47 
 
 Black 
 
 72 
 
 
 47 
 
 White-backed 
 
 26 
 
 Cuckoo 
 
 47 
 
 Magpie-lark 
 
 25 
 
 Delicate 
 
 4.K 
 
 Mallee-f o wl 
 
 60 
 
 
 45 
 
 Mallee-hen 
 
 60 
 
 Fern 
 
 48 
 
 Malurus cruentatus 
 
 56 
 
 Moth 
 
 48 
 
 cyaneus 
 
 31 
 
 
 
 tnelcinocephcilus 
 
 56 
 
 , 
 
 
 Jbl&noThinci mclcinopJifys 
 
 79 
 
 P 
 
 
 Martin, Blue 
 
 33 
 
 Pctchycephcila outtuTttlis 
 
 49 
 
 Fairy 
 
 22 
 
 Pacific Gull , 
 
 67 
 
 Masked Wood-swallow 
 
 34 
 
 Pallid Cuckoo 
 
 30 
 
 Megapodes 
 
 60 
 
 Po/rddlotus punctatus 
 
 52 
 
 Melanodryas ... 
 
 55 
 
 Parrot, Pvosella 
 
 16 
 
 Meliphagidce 
 
 15 
 
 Pee-weet 
 
 26 
 
 Menura superba .. . 
 
 41 
 
 " Peter Peter " 
 
 23 
 
 Menuridce 
 
 . ... 41 
 
 Petrochclidon dTicl 
 
 22 
 
 MeTopidce 
 
 . ... 47 
 
 (HylocJielidon) NioTicctas 
 
 22 
 
 Merops ornatus 
 
 . ... 47 
 
 Petroeca. 
 
 34 
 
 Micky . ... 
 
 36 
 
 
 34 
 
 Microeca fascinans 
 
 22 
 
 leqgii .. 
 
 35 
 
 Minah, Indian 
 
 36 
 
 
 56 
 
 Miner 
 
 36 
 
 multicolor 
 
 35 
 
 Mistletoe-bird.. 
 
 53 
 
 phosniccci 
 
 35 
 
 Mocking-bird. . . 
 
 41 
 
 Pheasant Mountain 
 
 41 
 
 Mopoke 
 
 45 
 
 Native Wood .... 
 
 41 
 
 More -pork 
 
 45 
 
 Scrub 
 
 56 
 
 Motacilla dubia .. 
 
 49 
 
 Pheasant- coucal .. 
 
 56 
 
84 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Pick-axe Geese .. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 04 
 
 1*AGE 
 
 Shrike-tit 5(j 
 
 Pied Grallina 
 
 25 
 
 Crested 5C 
 
 Robin , 
 
 55 
 
 White -"bellied 5(, 
 
 Pigeon, Blue 
 
 54 
 
 Yellow-bellied 51 
 
 Bronze- winor 
 
 52 
 
 Yellow- breasted 51 
 
 _ Pine 
 
 74 
 
 Silver Gull .. 61 
 
 Pine-pigeon 
 
 74 
 
 Silver-eye . 28 
 
 Pipet, Australian 
 
 29 
 
 Si sura inquietn 2? 
 
 Piping Crow-shrike 
 
 26 
 
 Sitella ... ..78 
 
 Plain- turkey 
 
 58 
 
 Si vie .... 28 
 
 Plegadis falcinellus 
 
 64 
 
 Small-billed Crow 68 
 
 Plover, Black-breasted 
 
 63 
 
 Smicornis brevirostris 51 
 
 - Norfolk 
 
 62 
 
 Snake-bird .. 3( 
 
 Spur- winged 
 
 63 
 
 Snipe Australian 1C 
 
 , _ . Stone 
 
 62 
 
 Soldier- bird 3( 
 
 PoddTOus cuTvari 
 
 45 
 
 Sordid Wood-swallow 3c 
 
 strigoides 
 
 45 
 
 Sordid-thrush . 3c 
 
 Pomatorhinus superciliosa 
 
 74 
 
 Southern Motacilla 5 
 
 - - tctfipofdlis 
 
 73 
 
 Sparrow 2( 
 
 Port Jackson Thrush 
 
 49 
 
 Sparrow-hawk 7( 
 
 Psophod&s CT&pitans 
 
 40 
 
 Spotted Diamond-bird 5S 
 Ground-bird 55 
 
 Purple- warbler , 
 
 31 
 
 R 
 
 ftcj 
 
 Nightjar 48 
 
 Spur-winged Plover 6 
 
 Squeaker -. . . 3( 
 
 Starling 2( 
 
 T>^ f l pUflf 
 
 80 
 
 Stone Plover 6' 
 
 R^rl VmnliWl Wr^n 
 
 56 
 
 Straw-necked Ibis 6^ 
 
 R*rl hrPA*tpH Wnrhlpr 
 
 OK 
 
 Strix delicatula 4, 
 
 
 VA 
 
 flammea 4' 
 
 
 23 
 
 Struthidia cinerea 1 i 
 
 
 24 
 
 Summer-bird 3J 
 
 
 KK 
 
 Big 5^ 
 
 
 QK 
 
 Superb-warbler 3 
 
 ' TTnnrlprl 
 
 55 
 
 Black-headed 5( 
 
 Piprl 
 
 KR 
 
 Swallow, Bottle-nest 2- 
 
 
 OA 
 
 Dicseum 5J 
 
 Scarlet-breasted 
 
 35 
 
 Masked Wood '.... 3< 
 
 Qnyrlirl \\7 'r\r^r\ Q 
 
 Shrike 
 
 Vpllnw Krpaaf^H 
 
 55 
 
 KK 
 
 Tree 2'. 
 
 
 1 fi 
 
 Welcome 2 
 
 S 
 
 Sacred Ibis .... 
 
 64 
 
 - White-backed 2' 
 
 White -browed Wood 3. 
 
 Swallow-shrike . 3, 
 
 Sweet Pretty Creature 2' 
 
 T 
 
 Talegallus (Cathetunix) l<illi<uni ... 4 
 
 Kingfisher . 
 
 75 
 
 Saltbush-bird . ... . 
 
 . ... 80 
 
 Scarlet-backed Warbler 
 
 56 
 
 Scarlet-breasted Robin . 
 
 35 
 
 Scissors-grinder. . . 
 
 23 
 
 Scrub-pheasant .. 
 
 50 
 
 Thickhead, White-throated . 4 
 
 Scrub-turkey 
 
 40 
 
 Yellow-breasted 4 { 
 
 $C'i/throps novoB~hollctndic& . . . 
 
 31 
 
 Thornbill, Yellow-rumped 3- 
 
 Settlers' Clock 
 
 37 
 
 Thrush, Black-crowned 4* 
 
 Shepherds' Companion . 
 
 24 
 
 Grey Shrike .. 4< 
 
 Short-billed Tree-tit... 
 
 51 
 
 Ground 5 
 
 Shrike, Black-faced Cuckoo . 
 
 54 
 
 Harmonius ... 4 ( 
 
 Falcon 
 
 50 
 
 Mountain.... 5 
 
 . Frontal 
 
 50 
 
 Orange -breasted ... 4! 
 
 Swallow 
 
 33 
 
 Port Jackson 41 
 
 Shrike-robin 
 
 55 
 
 Sordid 3( 
 
 Shrike-thrush, Grev , 
 
 49 
 
 Yello w- breasted. .. 5( 
 
INDEX. 
 
 85 
 
 Tit Crested Shrike 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 50 
 
 White-bellied Shrike-tit 
 
 PAGB, 
 
 50 
 
 Short-billed Tree 
 
 51 
 
 White -browed Babbler 
 
 73 
 
 White -bellied Shrike 
 
 50 
 
 Wood-swallow 
 
 33 
 
 Yellow bellied Shrike 
 
 50 
 
 White -eye 
 
 9 8 
 
 
 50 
 
 Whits-eyed. Crow 
 
 68 
 
 __ Ycllow-rumped 
 
 32 
 
 White-fronted Chat 
 
 80 
 
 
 75 
 
 Heron 
 
 66 
 
 Tomtit . ... 
 
 32 
 
 White -shouldered Campephaga .... 
 
 54 
 
 Tree Swallow 
 
 22 
 
 Caterpillar-eater 
 
 54 
 
 
 78 
 
 Lalage 
 
 54 
 
 Tree-runner Orange -winged 
 
 78 
 
 White -throated Nightjar 
 
 48 
 
 Tree-tit Short-billed 
 
 51 
 
 Thickhead 
 
 49 
 
 Turdus 
 
 51 
 
 White-winged Chough 
 
 72 
 
 Turkey Brush 
 
 40 
 
 Wild-turkey 
 
 58 
 
 Plain 
 
 58 
 
 Willie -wagtail 
 
 24 
 
 Scrub 
 
 40 
 
 Wood-pheasant, Native 
 
 41 
 
 Wild 
 
 58 
 
 Wood-swallow, Masked 
 
 34 
 
 Twelve Apostles 
 
 74 
 
 Sordid .... 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 White-browed 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 Wren Blue . .... 
 
 31 
 
 
 
 Brown's . 
 
 56 
 
 Urocetus audax 
 
 77 
 
 Orange-backed 
 
 56 
 
 V 
 
 Victorian Lyre-bird 
 
 41 
 
 Red-backed -. 
 
 Y 
 
 Yahoo 
 
 56 
 
 74 
 
 
 
 Yellow-bellied Shrike-tit 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 Yellow-breasted Robin 
 
 55 
 
 w 
 
 
 Shrike -tit 
 
 50 
 
 Wagtail Willie . 
 
 24 
 
 Thickhead 
 
 49 
 
 "Warbler Black-headed Superb 
 
 56 
 
 Thrush 
 
 55 
 
 Scarlet-backed 
 
 56 
 
 Yellow-eared Cockatoo 
 
 43 
 
 Water-hen 
 
 13 
 
 Yello w-rumped Thornbill 
 
 32 
 
 Wat tie -bird 
 
 52 
 
 Tit 
 
 32 
 
 Wattled Talegallus 
 
 40 
 
 Yellow-tail 
 
 32 
 
 Wedge-tailed Eagle 
 
 77 
 
 
 
 \Velcome Swallow 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 Whistler 
 
 49 
 
 z 
 
 
 Golden-breasted 
 
 49 
 
 Zonif&f tricolor 
 
 63 
 
 White Ibis 
 
 64 
 
 Zosterops ccerulescens 
 
 28 
 
 White-backed Swallow .. 
 
 22 
 
 qouldi 
 
 28 
 
 William Applegate Gullifk. Government Printer 10?J. 
 
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