AN AUSTRALIAN BIRD BOOK

A Pocket Book for Field Use

BY

J. A. LEACH, M.Sc.

First-class Honorman and University Exhibitioner and Scholar in Biology;
Organizing Inspector of Nature Study, Education Department, Victoria;
Member of the Council of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union;
Vice-President of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria; &c.

With Introduction by

FRANK TATE, M.A., I.S.O.

Director of Education, Victoria.

Published by arrangement with the Education Department
of Victoria.

SECOND EDITION

MELBOURNE

Christchurch, Wellington, Dunedin, N.Z., and London.

WHITCOMBE & TOMBS LIMITED

1912

Illustrations from Specimens (318) in the National Museum,
Melbourne; the balance mostly from Specimens in the Entomological
Museum, C. French (59), and in the collections of A. Coles,
Taxidermist, (36), C. F. Cole, and D. Le Souëf. Twenty-two birds
were photographed from Gould's "Birds of Australia," five from
drawings specially prepared by C. C. Brittlebank, the well-known
naturalist-artist, and one from the Report of the Horn Expedition.

Photos by Ralph L. Miller.

Engravings by Patterson Shugg & Co., from Paintings
by Miss Ethel M. Paterson.

INTRODUCTION.

Nature-study in our schools is fast producing a generation of
Australians trained to look upon the characteristic beauties
of our Australian skies, our trees, our flowers, our birds with
a passionate appreciation almost unknown to our pioneering
fathers and mothers. It was natural that newcomers from
the Old World should have been impressed, and often unfavorably
impressed, by the oddness of things here. Rural
sights to them had hitherto been sights of trim meadows
bordered by neat hedgerows, of well-cultivated fields and comfortable
farmsteads, or of stately homes set in fair gardens
and far-reaching parks of magnificently-spreading trees. What
wonder, then, that they were at first almost repelled by the
strangeness and unfamiliarity of their new surroundings!
How could eyes accustomed to the decided greens and to the
somewhat monotonous shapeliness of the trees in an English
summer landscape find beauty all at once in the delicate,
elusive tints of the gum trees, or in the wonderfully decorative
lines of their scanty boughs and light foliage shown clear
against a bright sky? And so a land which is eminently a
land of color, where the ever-present eucalypts give in their
leaves every shade from blue-grays to darkest greens; where
the tender shoots show brilliantly in bright crimson, or duller
russets, or bright coppery-gold; and where tall, slender stems
change slowly through a harmony of salmon-pinks and pearl-grays,
has been called a drab-colored land. Even now, the
beauty of the gum tree is not sufficiently appreciated by Australians,
and we see all too few specimens in our suburban
gardens. For an appreciation of the decorative effect of our
young blue gums, we must go to the Riviera or to English
conservatories.

Australia has suffered greatly from phrase-makers. There
is still much popular belief that our trees are shadeless, our
rivers are waterless, our flowers are scentless, our birds are
songless. Oddities in our flora and fauna have attracted the
notice of superficial observers, and a preference for epigrammatic
perfection, rather than for truthful generalization, has
produced an abundance of neatly-expressed half-truths, which
have been copied into popular literature, and even into school
books. Our English-bred poet, Gordon, writes of lands—

and these lines are remembered better than his description in
the same poem of Spring—

It is true that we have scentless, bright blossoms; but Australia
is the home of the richly-perfumed wattle, and the
boronia, with its never-cloying fragrance; while there is, perhaps,
no forest more odorous than a forest of eucalypts. It
is true, too, that we have bright birds that have no excellence
in song; but it is also true that, in this favored land, there is a
far greater proportion than usual of fine song-birds.

The first generations of Australians were not taught to love
Australian things. We "learned from our wistful mothers to
call Old England home." Our school books and our story
books were made in Great Britain for British boys and girls,
and naturally they stressed what was of interest to these boys
and girls. We read much about the beauty of the songs of
the Lark, and the Thrush, and the Nightingale, but we found
no printed authority for the belief that our Magpie is one of
the great song-birds of the world; we read of the wonderful
powers of the American Mocking-Bird, and did not know that
our beautiful Lyrebird is a finer mimic; we learned by heart
Barry Cornwall's well-known poem on "The Storm Petrel,"
and did not know that one of the most interesting of Petrel
rookeries is near the harbor gate of Melbourne; and I remember
well a lesson I heard as a boy on the migration of birds, in
which the teacher took all of his illustrations from his boyish
experiences in the South of England, and gave us no idea that
the annual migration of our familiar Australian birds to far-off
Siberia is a much more wonderful thing.

But all this is being rapidly changed. In the elementary
schools Nature-study is steadily improving, and children
are being given an eye for, and an interest in, the
world of Nature around them. Our school books are
now written from the Australian standpoint, and more
use can, therefore, be made of the child's everyday experience.
Field Naturalists' clubs are doing much to extend
the area of specialized Nature-study, and their members are
giving valuable assistance to the schools by taking part in the
programs for Arbor Day, Bird Day, and the like. The
growing interest in the Australian fauna and flora is further
evidenced by the frequent reservations by Government of desirable
areas as national parks and sanctuaries for the preservation of
Australian types. Last, but not least, is the production by capable
Nature students of special books on some form of Nature-study,
such as this Bird Book by Mr. Leach.

To our parents, Australia was a stranger land, and they were
sojourners here. Though they lived here, they did not get close
enough to it to appreciate fully its natural beauty and its charm.
To us, and especially to our children, children of Australian-born
parents, children whose bones were made in Australia, the place is
home. To them Nature makes a direct appeal, strengthened by
those most powerful of all associations, those gathered in childhood,
when the foundations of their minds were laid. The
English boy, out on a breezy down, may feel an exaltation of soul
3
on hearing a Skylark raining down a flood of delicious melody
from far up at heaven's gate, but his joy is no whit greater than
his who hears, in the dewy freshness of the early morning, the
carol of the Magpie ringing out over an Australian plain. To
those who live in countries where the winter is long and bitter,
any sign that the genial time of flowers is at hand is very welcome.
All over the countryside the first call of the Cuckoo,
spring's harbinger, arouses the keenest delight in expectant listeners.
This delight is, however, more than mere delight in the
bird's song. And to those brought up with it year by year there
comes a time when the call of the Cuckoo stirs something deep
down below the surface of ordinary emotion. It is the resultant
of multitudes of childhood experiences and of associations with
song and story. I first heard the Cuckoo in Epping Forest one
delicious May evening four years ago. It charmed me, but my
delight was almost wholly that of association. All the English
poetry I knew was at the back of the bird's song. Here in
Australia we have no sharply-defined seasons, yet I find myself
every spring listening eagerly for the first plaintive, insistent call
of the Pallid Cuckoo. For me his song marks another milestone
passed.

Marcus Clarke wrote of the Laughing Jackasses as bursting
into "horrible peals of semi-human laughter." But then
Marcus Clarke was English-bred, and did not come to Australia
till he was eighteen years old. It makes all the difference
in our appreciation of bird or tree or flower to have known
it as a boy. I venture to think no latter-day Australian who
has grown up with our Kookaburra can have any but the
kindliest of feelings for this feathered comedian. For myself,
I confess that I find his laughter infectious, and innumerable
times he has provoked me into an outburst as hearty and as
mirthful as his own. More than half of our pleasure is due
to the fact that the bird is

and to such a one we can say—

It is time that we Australians fought against the generally
received opinion that the dominant note of our scenery is weird
melancholy. This is the note sounded mainly by those who
were bred elsewhere, who came to us with other associations
and other traditions, and sojourned among us. It will not be
the opinion of the native-born when they find appropriate
speech.

This little book should do much to popularize bird-study and
to spread a knowledge of our common birds among our people.
I hope devoutly that an effort will be made to give them suitable
names. We should give them names a poet or a child
can use. A Chaucer poring lovingly over his favorite flower,
the daisy, could call it by a name which is itself full of poetry.
Even the unimaginative clown, Nick Bottom, could sing of

And a Burns can invoke the Throstle in lines as musical as the
song of the bird itself—"And thou mellow mavis, that hails
the night-fa'."

But how shall an Australian bard sing of "The Red-rumped
Acanthiza," or of that delightful songster, "The Rufous-breasted
Thickhead"? Australian Nature-poetry will be handicapped
until our children give names like "Bobolink," and
"Chickadee," and "Whip-poor-will," and "Jacky Winter," to our
birds.

"Oriel," in the Argus, some time ago, showed how hard it is
to write of love's young dream in Australian verse.

It surely would not be amiss if the Bird Observers' Clubs
throughout Australia, and the Royal Australasian Ornithologists'
Union, enlisted the aid of the State Education Departments,
and endeavored to find out what names the children use
for the birds of their district. Executive committees upon
bird names are good; but a good name is not evoked by arguments
in committee. It ofttimes comes from the happy
inspiration of some child who loves the bird. At present the
names given by classifiers are often an offence. A few evenings
5
ago I was charmed with an unaccustomed song coming
from out a big pittosporum tree in my garden at Kew. I took
careful note of the little warbler, and then consulted Mr. Leach's
Descriptive List. Judge of my satisfaction when I found that
my little friend was "The Striated Field Wren or Stink Bird"!

The Australian boy is responding splendidly to the Nature-study
movement. Bird observers tell me that shy native birds,
formerly unknown near the haunts of men, are making their
appearance, feeling safer now from molestation. Nest hunting
for the sake of egg spoliation is happily becoming rarer,
although children are developing keener eyes for nests. To-day
every country school has its nests under loving observation
for the purposes of bird-study and of bird-protection.
Walt Whitman might have been describing many a Victorian
school boy when he wrote—

This loving study must bear good fruit. If we believe the
scientific men, Australia is, par excellence, the land of birds,
song-birds, plumage-birds, and birds of wonderful interest,
such as the Satin Bower Bird. The collection of Australian
birds in our National Museum at Melbourne is certainly one of
the finest sights of the city, and it should be studied by all who
wish to know how favored this continent is in bird distribution.
But we must get to know and to love our feathered friends.
Mr. Leach in his lecture has dwelt sufficiently on the economic
and scientific value of bird-study. Let me enter a plea for
bird-study as a source of æsthetic pleasure. Before our Australian
birds can be to us what the Thrush and the Blackbird and
the Linnet and the Lark and the Nightingale are to the British
boy, we must have a wealth of association around them from song
and story. And this association must grow up with us from
childhood if it is to make the strongest appeal to us. It can
rarely be acquired in later life. British birds owe much to the
poets for the charm that surrounds them. When I heard the
Nightingale in England, although I had no association with it
gathered from my boyhood's days, I heard more than the bird's
song. I was listening to Keats and Wordsworth and Shakespeare
as well. There is something very fine in the thought
that such bird songs go on for ever, that these immortal birds
are "not made for death," that

The Nightingale's song, as a bird song, I thought disappointing.
I remember having the same feeling with regard to the
Thrush and Blackbird. The charm of their songs is largely
in the associations they evoke. Our city children are now growing
up in familiarity with these two birds, which are becoming as
6
common in our gardens as in England. And wherever they go
they carry so much that is fine in literature with them. But
there has not yet been time for our native birds to endear themselves
to us. And so we hear only their song. Wise Shakespeare
says—

He knows that to the song of the bird must be its appropriate
setting, and that when Nature has done her part there is still
much to be supplied by ourselves.

The outlook is, however, a hopeful one. Nature-study is
bringing our boys and girls into kindlier relationships
with our birds; suitable popular names will be forthcoming
for them; our poets will sing of them; our nursery
rhymes and our children's tales will tell of them; and the time
will come when even the birds now trying so hard to sing their
way into our hearts, while cursed with the names of "Rufous-breasted
Thickhead" and "Striated Field Wren or Stink Bird,"
will mean to an Australian what "the Throstle with his note so
true" and "the Wren with little quill" do to an Englishman.

Mr. Leach's valuable little book is a powerful contribution
to this much-to-be-desired result.

FRANK TATE.

NAMES RECENTLY AMENDED

By Gregory Mathews.

The following were not included in the text.

The numbers 70, 74, and so on refer to the numbers of the birds.

PREFACE.

This little volume is intended as a pocket book for field use,
so that the many teachers, nature-students, nature-lovers,
schoolboys, schoolgirls, and boy scouts, who like to "see what
they look at," may be able to name the birds they meet.

The first step towards knowing the birds is a desire to know
them; this will grow if a person is interested; so our first business,
as in all nature-study work, is to arouse interest. Interest
follows at once, as we have often found, if a person realizes
that what is about him or her is worthy of study.

To arouse this necessary interest, a lecture on Australian birds
is given in such a form that it may be repeated, if desired.

The second requisite is a handy descriptive list of the birds
that are likely to be seen. This has been written in simple language,
so that the schoolboy and non-expert can use it.

Thus, our aims are two:—

1. To show that Australian birds are of interest.

2. To supply, in a convenient form, a list of the birds which
are likely to be seen, and the marks by means of which
they may be identified.

This little book contains illustrations and descriptions of—

The balance of those found in each of the other States is made
up mainly of birds closely related to those of which illustrations
are given, or of very rare birds restricted to a small area.

The families of the birds of the world have been included, so
that the observer can see where the bird he is observing is
placed amongst the world's birds. He will also be enabled to
place near its Australian relatives birds he reads about. The
Australian birds only are grouped in orders.

Mr. H. Wilson, Nature-study Lecturer, Training College, superintended
the painting of the birds, and saw the book through the
press.

A Hand-List of Birds: Dr. Sharpe; and A Hand-List of the
Birds of Australasia: Gregory M. Mathews, have been followed
for classification and distribution.

But for the interest of the Minister of Education, the Hon. A.
A. Billson, and the Director, Mr. F. Tate, M.A., I.S.O., this little
book would not have been possible. Further, Mr. Billson suggested
the colored illustrations, while Mr. Tate has written the
introduction, read the proof-sheets and assisted at all stages.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

In response to requests from beginners, a table has been added
on page 190. This table shows the page on which a bird of a
certain size may be found.

Pending the completion by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists'
Union of its official Check-list of the Birds of Australia,
the scientific names have been left as in the first edition.

NOTES.

Where one number is placed over another at the left side of the
page, the lower number denotes the number of species of that
genus found in the world; the upper denotes the number of species
found in Australia and Tasmania.

The number at the right side of the page is the length of the
bird in inches (from the tip of bill to the tip of tail).

The families of birds known are numbered consecutively, thus,
F. 11, F. 12, and so on. The number after a family name denotes
the number of species recorded from Australia and Tasmania.
The distribution of the species of each family amongst the six
zoogeographical regions is shown thus:

This should read: Family number 17 of the world's birds,
COLUMBIDAE (two of which are found in Australia and Tasmania)
contains the Wood Pigeons, including the Passenger-Pigeon
(of North America) and the Rock-Dove (of Europe). It
comprises 119 species, of which 41 are found in the Australian
Region, 40 of them being confined to this region; 25 are found in
the Oriental Region, 17 being confined to it; 18 are found in the
Palaearctic Region, 10 of which are not found outside the region;
19 have been recorded from the Ethiopian Region, 17 being peculiar
to that region; 4 have been recorded from the Nearctic
Region, none of which is restricted to the region; 24 have been
recorded from the Neotropical Region, 20 being peculiar to it.

The name in black type is the name accepted by the Australasian
Association for the Advancement of Science in 1898, and
amended by the "names" sub-committee of the Royal Australasian
Ornithologists' Union, 1911. This name should be used to
denote the bird. Many local names are given, so that a person
knowing a bird by one of these may discover its proper name.

A.—Australian Region (from Wallace's Line to Sandwich
Islands and New Zealand, see map p. 10).

O.—Oriental (Indian) Region (India to Wallace's Line).

P.—Palaearctic Region (Europe, N.W. Africa, and Northern and
Western Asia, except Arabia).

E.—Ethiopian Region (Arabia and Africa, except N.W.).

Nc.—Nearctic Region. ("The A.O.U. Check-List of North
American Birds, 1910" has been followed in making this
North America, less Mexico).

Nl.—Neotropical Region (South America, with Mexico).

A.O.U.—American Ornithologists' Union; R.A.O.U—Royal Australasian
Ornithologists' Union.

A. denotes found throughout Australia; E.A. denotes found in
Queensland, N.S.W., and Victoria; S.A. denotes South Australia;
C.A. denotes Central Australia; W.A. denotes Western Australia;
N. Ter.—Northern Territory; Mal.—Malaysia; Mol.—Molucca Is.;
N. Cal.—New Caledonia; N. Heb.—New Hebrides; N.G.—New
Guinea; N.Z.—New Zealand; Br.—British; T.—Tasmania.

Nom.—Nomadic; Mig.—Migratory; Part. Mig.—Partly Migratory;
Stat.—Stationary; exc.—except; acc.—accidental.

C.—common; v.c.—very common; r.—rare; v.r.—very rare;
u.—unlikely that the ordinary observer will see it.

* means see colored illustration.

f.—female; m.—male; f., sim.—f. is similar in color and size.

=vt. Eur. denotes that the Australian bird is closely similar in
form, habits, &c., to the corresponding European bird.

=vt. cos. denotes that it is the equivalent or representative of
a cosmopolitan group of birds.

1

4

6* King Quail (Chestnut-bellied, Least, Dwarf), reads
"No. 6 (see colored illustration) is the King Quail,
called also the Chestnut-bellied Quail, Least Quail,
and Dwarf Quail. Four of this genus are known in
the world, of which one is found in Australia."

(e) denotes that a name is used in error.

A Yellow-tailed Tit-Warbler is about 4 in. long; a White-eye,
4.5 in.; a Sparrow, 5 in.; a House-Swallow, 6.5 in.; a Sordid Wood-Swallow,
7 in.; a Black and White Fantail, 7.5 in.; a Starling,
8.5 in.; a Harmonious Shrike-Thrush, 9.5 in.; a Noisy Miner, 10 in.;
a Magpie-Lark, 10.5 in.; a Butcher-Bird, 11 in.; a Pallid Cuckoo,
12 in.; a Rosella, 12.5 in.; a Galah, 14 in.; a Wattle-Bird, 14.5 in.;
a Laughing Kingfisher, 17.5 in.; a White-backed Magpie, 18 in.; and
a Crow, 20 in. (measured from the tip of tail to the tip of bill).

Don't try to judge a bird's length in inches.

Note one or two prominent markings, and the size of a bird;
say, larger than a Starling, but smaller than a Magpie-Lark.
Then get the length of these birds from the table above
(8½ in. and 10½ in. respectively), and compare the description
of each bird that comes between these lengths with
the illustrations and the bird before you. The birds are approximately
relative size on each block.

Use the index to find the page of a bird, then use the number,
if asterisked, to find the bird in the colored plate index.

An Australian Bird Book.

A LECTURE.

Australia is the wonderland of the scientist and of the Nature-lover.
It is a great living "museum," stocked with marvels of
many kinds, including so-called "living fossils," the sole survivors
of otherwise extinct groups of animals.

Competent authorities have proposed to divide the world,
biologically, into two parts—Australia and the rest of the world,
and they have considered Australia the more important part.

This division was based mainly on the study of mammals—animals
which suckle their young—for Australia is the home of the
two surviving members of the lowest group of mammals—Monotremata,
the egg-laying Platypus (Ornithorhynchus), and the
Spiny Ant-eater (Echidna). Further, marsupials, except for
two kinds found in America, are confined to this long-isolated
southern land.

Here, shut off from the severe competition experienced by
the animals of northern lands, marsupials were modified so that
they were adapted for life in almost every realm utilized by the
higher mammals of other countries. Thus there are herbivorous,
carnivorous, and insectivorous marsupials. Owing, probably,
to the advent of Bats—true flying mammals—at, possibly, a
comparatively early time, the marsupial was beaten in the
air, and so a true flying form was not evolved, though the
so-called "Flying Phalanger" is some distance on the way.

As regards the other group of flying animals—birds—Australia
is even of greater interest, for here are found unique archaic
forms of life, such as the Emu, Cassowary, Mound-Builders,
and Lyre-Birds, and "every widely-spread family of birds but
two is represented; the only widely-spread families of birds
totally absent from Australia are Woodpeckers and Vultures."
Woodpeckers, however, have crossed Wallace's line into Celebes
and adjacent islands, and may yet reach Australia naturally.

Further, many well-known birds, such as Pigeons, Parrots,
and Kingfishers, reach their highest development in the Australian
region, and, more important still, the whole bird world
seems to reach its culminating point in this wonderland. It
is a factor adding to the interest of Australia's fauna
that three of the four families placed at the head of the
bird world in the natural system of classification adopted
by ornithologists, and used by Dr. Sharpe in his just recently completed
Hand-List of Birds, should be absolutely confined to

the Australian Continent and adjacent islands. Thus Australia
can justly claim to be the most highly developed of
regions, so far as birds are concerned, for Bower-Birds, Birds of
Paradise, and Bell-Magpies (Streperas) are peculiar, while the
penultimate family—the Crow family—is shared with the other
regions of the world.

Thus, with regard to birds, the term "fossil continent" applied
to Australia is not appropriate, as it is but partly true.

Since the birds native to Australia are so interesting in themselves,
and are so varied in kind, Australians should know, love,
and jealously protect these beautiful creatures. Strict regulations
should be framed to prevent the exploitation of Nature's
gifts by those who destroy useful or precious and rare birds for

the sake of gain. Even collectors, who, under the guise of
scientific work, collect eggs, and kill birds to trade in their skins,
should be supervized.

Let us now consider the different groups of birds. Living
birds were formerly divided into two sub-classes—(1) Ratitae
(Lat., ratis, a raft), and (2) Carinatae (Lat., carina, a
keel).
The first is the small group of flightless, running birds, made up
of five living birds, all inhabiting southern lands. These are
the Emu and Cassowary of Australia, the Ostrich of South Africa,
the Rhea or South American Ostrich, and the Kiwi or Apteryx of
New Zealand. Taken together with other evidence, all pointing
in the same way, these birds have led scientists to think of a
great southern land mass connecting the southern lands, for the
Emu did not fly here, nor did the Rhea fly to South America, but
they must have reached their present home by a land-bridge not
necessarily complete at any one time. As these birds do not fly,
they have no big wing-muscles, and so do not need the ridge

of bone down the breast. Thus they belong to the sub-class, the
members of which have a raft-like breast bone. The other living
birds were placed in the sub-class the members of which have
a keel on the breast bone for the attachment of the wing-muscles.

Recently, however, Pycraft, a leading ornithologist, has proposed
to base the division into sub-classes on the characters of
the bones of the palate instead of those of the breast-bone. Thus,
he places the sixth family of birds—the Tinamous, of South
America—with the ratite birds, to form his primitive
group—Palaeognathae
("old jaw"), while the members of the old sub-class
Carinatae, minus the Tinamous, constitute his second division,
the Neognathae ("new jaw").

Mr. Gregory Mathews, the first part of whose projected great
work on Australian Birds has just come to hand, has followed
Dr. Bowdler Sharpe in accepting this classification, so we must
follow too, as Mathews' work will probably be our standard for

years to come. The large number of Australian birds belonging
to this second sub-class is now divided into 20 orders, which
with the Emu order, make a total of 21 orders of birds represented
in Australia.

Now, let us consider the birds in each order. The best-known
member of the first Australian order is the Emu, a bird well
known to all, though, unfortunately, becoming very rare, so that
few persons in the settled districts now enjoy the privilege of
seeing an Emu in a wild state.

The birds of the second order are well known as "scratchers."
They include the domestic fowl, which has been derived from
the wild jungle fowl of India, and other fowl, such as
the peafowl. Quail are also included here; so are
Pheasants. The absence of Pheasants from Australia is
more than compensated for by the presence of the
Mound-Builders. These marvellous birds, Brush Turkeys and
Mallee-Fowl, retain the reptilian characteristic of not sitting on

their eggs. Thus the young have never known their parents.
The eggs are laid in a huge mound of sand and earth, which contains
rotting vegetation. The heat of decomposition in this remarkable
natural incubator, is quite sufficient to hatch the eggs.
The young are born fully feathered, able to run at once, and able
to fly the day they leave the mound. Contrast their stage of
development with that of a pigeon born naked, blind, and helpless,
and that of a chick born clothed with down and able to run
about. There is an interesting connexion between the size of
an egg and the state of development of the young bird at birth.
The pigeon lays a relatively small egg, so the young pigeon does
not develop far in the egg, and requires much maternal care. The
hen's egg is larger, and the chick is more fully developed. The
Mallee-Hen's egg is enormous, and so the young can develop
much further before birth. This bird, unfortunately, is doomed
to early extinction, for the fox has discovered the rich store of
food in the eggs, and country dwellers have also discovered that
they are delicate in flavor, and are good food. It is hoped that

the scrubby western end of Kangaroo Island, where foxes are
unknown, will prove a suitable sanctuary for them. These
birds, which rank among Nature's wonders, are almost confined
to the Australian region. One is found in Borneo and the Philippines,
while a second is confined to the distant Nicobar Islands.
Twenty-six live in Australia and its neighboring islands. One
of these has spread across Wallace's line to the small Kangean
Island, near Java. The Stubble Quail, a member of the Pheasant
family, is nearly identical with the British Quail. Mathews and
Campbell make the King Quail a sub-species of the Chinese Quail.

Quail are favorite sporting birds, but when one considers
that they are worth about 9d. each as table or game birds, and that
sportsmen found at Birregurra, that the crops of Quail were
full of crickets, and at Kerang the Quail contained numbers of a
species of weevil, it is doubtful if it is wise policy to shoot this
insect-eating bird. Although it may be worth a few pence as
a table bird; it is worth many shillings as a pest destroyer.

Order III. comprises the 26 Bustard Quail and the peculiar
Australian Plain Wanderer. Only the last species of this

Bustard Quail family, the Australian Plain Wanderer has the
hind toe. The females of this order of birds do the fighting.

In Quail, the rule often observed amongst birds that the male
is larger and more beautiful than the female may be reversed,
for here the female is sometimes larger and the more conspicuously
colored. In association with this reversal of color and
size, the domestic habits are changed, for, in some species at
least, the female sits on the eggs but a very short time; the male
then finishes the task of incubating, and brings up and educates
the young family. Meantime, the female has found another
mate and another clutch of eggs is left to the care of the male.

In birds having both sexes the same color each bird usually
does its share of domestic work, sitting on the eggs, feeding the
young, etc. Where the male is more brightly colored, he, as a
rule, does not sit on the eggs, for he would be visible to a bird
of prey sailing overhead, and so would probably be killed and
the eggs taken. The great naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace,
thus regards the quiet coloration of most female birds as a
protection during the nesting season. The gaudy coloration of
many male birds has been explained by Darwin as being due to
sexual selection, the female choosing as a mate the most gaily
colored or most attractive bird.

Though the sitting bird is usually protectively colored, it was
our good fortune, on a Summer School excursion, attended by
His Excellency the Governor (Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael), a
keen Nature-lover, and the Director of Education (Mr. F. Tate),
to find the gorgeously-colored male Golden-breasted Whistler
(Thickhead) sitting on the eggs in full daylight. It was noted,
however, that the open nest was unusually well protected by an
overhead bushy branch.

In Order IV. come those well-known birds—the "Cooers,"
Pigeons and Doves. The Australian region is the great stronghold
of these often beautiful birds. It is only in this region
that members of each of the five families of living Pigeons are
found. Two of the five families are peculiar to the region, and
nearly half the kinds of Pigeons known are found here. The
finest and largest of all Pigeons are the large Crowned Pigeons
of New Guinea. Unfortunately, the heads of these Pigeons are
much in demand for millinery. Would that fashionable
women knew the cruelty and devastation wrought by such
fashions!

Amongst the most beautiful of Pigeons are, as Dr. Newton remarked,
the common Bronzewing Pigeons of Australia and
Tasmania. The lovely Fruit-Pigeons of East Australian scrubs
are, perhaps, the most beautiful of all, so it will readily be seen
how fortunate we are with regard to these birds.

The fine large Wonga-Wonga Pigeon is becoming rare. Its
flesh is white, so Gould named it Leucosarcia (white flesh). It
has been proposed to introduce this bird into Europe to breed
for table purposes.

The birds of Order V. are amongst the successes in the struggle
for existence, for they are found the world over.

The Landrail or Corn-Crake, the Little Crake, Spotted Crake,
Moor-Hen, Purple Gallinule, and the lobed-toed Coot, of other
countries, are represented by similar birds here.

They are largely swamp-dwellers, and conditions about swamps
apparently do not vary much from continent to continent. There
is a full supply of vegetable and animal food, and there is good
shelter in the thick reed-beds. The smaller members of the family
are seldom seen, for they skulk amongst the reeds, and seldom
show themselves.

Many of these birds are long-toed, and are beautifully adapted
for life about the soft mud and floating vegetation of lagoons and
swamps. Though the feet are not webbed, several of these swamp-dwellers
swim well. Thus the Little Crake is an expert swimmer
and diver.

There is one Australian bird not represented in other countries.
This is the handsome, bantam-like Black-tailed Native-Hen. At
long intervals the birds appear in thousands, and, being largely
vegetable feeders, they have sometimes done considerable damage
to crops.

During one such irruption in 1846, the birds invaded the streets

of Adelaide. Others invaded the Geraldton district, and even
reached Perth in 1886. Northern Victoria was visited in 1909.

Some of the members of this group are known to all; indeed,
when you have finished reading this lecture, I expect to have
created in your mind an idea that bird study is very simple—that
you know at least one of each of the groups of birds. One
further advantage of bird study is that so few birds are found in
any district. Thus, only 880 birds have ever been recorded
from Australia, whereas there are over 9,000 kinds of native
flowering plants, not to mention non-flowering plants. In very
few districts could a list of 100 different kinds of birds be compiled
in one year.

Again, while it is impossible to talk popularly of native plants,
because they have no common names, that does not apply to birds,
for bird-lovers have given a simple name to each bird. Even
children, therefore, can talk definitely and exactly about the different
kinds. This is a great advantage. Again, as birds are living,
moving, loving, and beautiful animals, they have always been
favorite objects of study, and so we know more about them than

about any other division of the animal kingdom. Thus you
will, I hope, find that you know far more about the subject than
you at first thought.

In the next Order, the Sixth, there are three Australian birds.
They are called Grebes. Bird names often reflect some habit,
e.g., Scratchers, Cooers. So Grebes are often called Divers.
But the Divers of the ornithologist are Northern Hemisphere
birds, placed in the next family (25).

There is a widespread tradition to the effect that Grebes wait
for the flash of the cap, and then dive before the bullet can reach
them. They are, indeed, remarkably active in the water, but
are absurd on land. Their legs are set so far back that it is
almost impossible for them to walk. Their toes are not webbed,
but are broadly lobed.

The Great Crested Grebe is identical with the British bird, for
it is found all through the Eastern Hemisphere.

This is a remarkable distribution, when we consider that the
bird, by reason of its very small wings, is a poor flyer, and is
almost helpless on land. Such a wide distribution of a creature
possessing poor means of locomotion indicates that the animal
must have existed for a long time, so that it has been able to
gradually extend its range. Thus we conclude it is an ancient
form.

In the next order come those remarkable birds, Penguins. As
so much has been said about Penguins by Lieutenant Shackleton's
party, they have caught the popular fancy, and people are much
interested in them. Many Australians do not know that three
Penguins are found on their own coast. It was one of the sights
of the 1910 Summer School at Portsea to sit on the balcony and
watch the Penguins chasing their prey in the clear waters in front.
Their wings are paddles, being flattened and devoid of quills.
The wings are not folded, but are carried hanging awkwardly at the side.

During the interest aroused by Peary's expedition to the North
Pole, an illustrated weekly paper published a cartoon, which
showed the American Eagle sitting on the North Pole and
reading a proclamation to an audience of Penguins. One thing
is unfortunate about this—Penguins are unknown in the Northern
Hemisphere. Indeed, they support the geographer in his contention
that, while the Pacific Ocean is very ancient, the Atlantic
Ocean has been formed much more recently, for Penguins are
found up the Pacific even to the Galapagos Is. on the Equator,
but have not spread into the Atlantic Ocean beyond Tristan da
Cunha, at the extreme South.

Order VIII. includes the true ocean birds—those wanderers seen
far from any land by ocean travellers. Indeed, many of them
do not go near land except to breed. Then they usually repair
to small lonely islands often with bold precipitous shores.

Ocean birds are readily divisible into four families. The first
is made up of the 25 Storm-Petrels; the second of the 75 Petrels,
Shearwaters, Fulmars, and Dove-Petrels; the third family comprises
only the three small southern Diving-Petrels; while the
fourth contains the nineteen noble Albatrosses.

Though Storm-Petrels and Petrels of various kinds may be
seen in the Northern Hemisphere, yet the Southern Hemisphere,
with its enormous expanse of water, is the headquarters of these
birds.

The dainty, tiny Storm-Petrels, fearlessly tripping over the
mountain billows in times of great danger to the sailor, were considered
birds of ill-omen. Their peculiar flight possibly helped
this idea. Gould closely studied them and other ocean birds
during his voyages on sailing ships. He describes them as "fluttering
over the glassy surface of the ocean during calms with an
easy butterfly-like motion of the wings, and buffeting and breasting
with equal vigor the crests of the loftiest waves of the storm;
at one moment descending into their deep troughs, and, at the
next, rising with the utmost alertness to their highest point,
apparently from an impulse communicated as much by striking

the surface of the water with its webbed feet as by the action of
the wings."

This habit of "walking" on the sea is said to be responsible
for the name "Petrel," which is associated with Saint Peter, who,
of old, walked on the waters. Sailors call them Mother Carey's
Chickens.

The largest Australian Storm-Petrel is the Whitefaced Storm-Petrel,
whose scientific name, Pelagodroma, means "open sea wanderer."
It has been recorded even from the North Atlantic and
Britain. Many thousands of these birds still nest on Mud Island,
a sandbank just inside Port Phillip Heads. The presence there
of a true ocean wanderer is a valuable piece of evidence to support
the geographer in his claim that Port Phillip Bay once had
a wide opening, which has been almost closed by the drift of sand
across its mouth. The Storm-Petrels have probably nested there
for many, many centuries. Long may they continue to do so!
They hurt no one, and they are a feature of interest to all interested
in the flora and fauna of Australia, and to natural history
students and Nature-lovers in general.

The Shackleton expedition met the Wilson (Yellow-webbed)
Storm-Petrel, in considerable numbers, far south. Two specimens
were presented by Lieutenant Shackleton to the National Museum,
Melbourne. However, recently our Museum received, through
the agency of two schoolboys, a specimen that is valued even more
highly, for it is Australian.

The boys, on their way to the Marshaltown State School (Mr.
H. B. Williamson, H.T.), found a bird near a fence about nine
miles inland. It had evidently been killed by flying into the
fence in the dark. Using the Bird-List, the boys discovered
that it was a Yellow-webbed Storm-Petrel, a truly pelagic bird,
as its name, Oceanites oceanicus indicates. Mr. Williamson, to
show that the List was of assistance, even to boys, in identifying
birds they had never heard of before, left the bird at the Continuation
School, Geelong. Here it was recognized as a valuable
specimen, and was at once sent to Mr. Kershaw, curator of
the National Museum. It is now in the Australian collection.

The true Petrels are very numerous in kinds and individuals.

Darwin thought that the most numerous of birds was a Petrel.
One of great interest is the "Mutton-Bird," or Short-tailed Petrel.
This romantic bird breeds by the million on Cape Woolamai and
other places about Bass Strait.

Just as the mallee farmer is dependent on his annual wheat
harvest, so the remarkable colony of people living on Cape Barren
Island is entirely dependent on the annual Mutton-Bird harvest.
They claim to take about a million and a half birds each year.
The number is probably much exaggerated, for Littler, in his
valuable Birds of Tasmania, gives the number as 555,000 for
1909, valued at about £4000. Bass and Flinders were glad to
replenish their stores with young Mutton-Birds. Flinders calculated
that one flock of these birds he met in Bass Strait contained
132,000,000 birds. They lay but one egg, so one would expect
the Petrel to be long-lived. We found a closely-similar bird
nesting on Mast Head Island, Capricorn Group.

The three southern Diving Petrels, forming the next family,
are much smaller than the common Petrels. They are expert
divers, and are found mainly in the far South.

The mighty Albatross, with its enormous wing-span of possibly
up to 14 feet, is also largely a southern bird. That this bird
has spread to the North Pacific Ocean, but has not yet penetrated
any distance into the Atlantic, is another piece of evidence as to
the age of these two oceans. The Pacific Ocean is a very ancient
depression, while the Atlantic is much younger, and has been
formed since the lands which border its shores. The Black-browed
Albatross, however, was once seen in England. Probably
this bird might have been carried north on board ship, and then
set free again. Fossil bones of Albatrosses have been found in
France and England. Their remarkable power of wheeling
round and round a vessel, with no perceptible movement of the
wing, has excited much interest and controversy.

Mr. Froude, in his Oceana, has given a vivid description of this
flight. The Albatross "wheels in circles round and round and
for ever round the ship—now far behind, now sweeping past in a
long, rapid curve, like a perfect skater on an untouched field of
ice. There is no effort; watch as closely as you will, you rarely
or never see a stroke of the mighty pinion. The flight is generally
near the water, often close to it. You lose sight of the

bird as he disappears in the hollow between the waves, and catch
him again as he rises over the crest; but how he rises, and whence
comes the propelling force, are to the eye inexplicable; he alters
merely the angle at which the wings are inclined...."

Gould considered that many of these birds circumnavigate the
globe many times. They follow ships for days together.

Albatrosses are sometimes caught by those on board ship.
One means of protection employed by these birds is to discharge a
considerable quantity of oily matter at an intruder. This has
led sailors to declare that the bird is "seasick." Some claim that
this is not done for protection, but is due to fright.

The members of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union, when
on a trip in the Manawatu to the Bass Strait Islands found it
tantalizing to see the beautiful Shy Albatrosses sitting on their

nests on the precipitous granite Albatross Rock, and be unable
to land owing to the rough sea that was running. We waited
a second and a third day, in the shelter of Chimney
Corner, Three Hummocks Island, but finally had to
depart with but a distant acquaintance with this fine bird.
When they return to nest the succeeding year, the parents
drive last year's brood off the island. Does the young live
on its fat all through the cold, rough winter, or do the parents
return at intervals to feed it? Some recent records by a French
party on one of these lonely nesting islands show that in some
cases, at least, the parents do feed the young at night during their
long wait. The sitting bird is fed by her mate. He opens his
mouth, and she inserts her bill, and chooses a dainty for herself.

A Monograph of the Petrels, by F. Du Cane Godman, F.R.S.,
Pres. British Ornithologists' Union, was consulted for Order VIII.

The birds of Order IX. are mainly shore birds. There are four
chief kinds of these—Terns (Sea-Swallows), including Noddy
Terns, Gulls, the remarkable northern Skimmers, which skim
along the surface with the lengthened end of the lower mandible
in the water, and the bold sea-pirates, Skuas. Fifty-seven Terns
and Noddies are found throughout the world. Of these, twenty-one
have been recorded from Australian waters.

Being powerful flyers, it is not surprising to find that several
of the Australian Terns are really Old-World, and even New-World,
forms too. Thus the Whiskered (Marsh) Tern is also
British. The Caspian, Gull-billed, and Bridled (Brown-winged)
Terns are British and American, while the Sooty Tern is found
in all tropical and sub-tropical seas. It is one of the famous
birds of the world, for it is the "egg bird" of sailors. It retires
in large companies to low scrubby islands to breed. Here it lays
a single egg on the bare ground. Sailors, tired of ship's fare,
often visit these "rookeries." Gould quotes a record of one party
which took 1500 dozen eggs on one small island in Torres Strait.
Spanish eggers from Havanah take cargoes, which are disposed of
at 25 cents per gallon.

The Wide-Awake Fair, of Ascension Island, is a famous
annual event in natural history. A similar scene has been
described by Mr. A. W. Milligan, the well-known West Australian
ornithologist, on the Houtman Abrolhos Island, west of Western
Australia. Here acres of the ground were covered by birds
sitting on their nests. The question is, does each find its own nest
when it returns to sit? Mr. Milligan settled this in the affirmative
by tying a piece of string to a sitting bird and then letting it
take flight. It found its own egg, and resumed its work. It is
noteworthy that no two of the million eggs are similarly
marked, and this puzzling variation in marking probably assists
each bird to recognize its own egg.

One of the daintiest of these birds is the Fairy Tern, which
was common on Mud Island while the 1909 Summer School was
being held. Obedient to the call of the mother bird, which
hovered threateningly overhead, the mottled and striped young
one squatted on the shelly sand beach while bird-lovers hunted
around for the material for a photograph. At length the dark
eye revealed the beautifully-protected young bird.

As the camera was being fixed, a different call from the mother
caused the young one to run away. Three or four naturalists
tried to catch the active little bird, which stopped for a moment
and disgorged two whole small fish, with which its mother had
evidently but recently fed it. Eventually a good picture was
obtained. These Terns nest singly, though others nest in large
companies. They obtain fish by diving into the sea. It was
interesting, on a Nature-study excursion, to watch the Crested
Terns diving frequently into the sea above a shoal of small fish
at Sandringham.

We found the Noddies breeding in thousands on Mast Head
Island, in the Capricorn Group. They built a small platform
of leaves, or seaweed, high or low, on every possible nesting site
on the great Pisonia trees. In fact, there is an interesting kind
of partnership between the bird and the tree. The fruits of the
Pisonia have bands of sticky glands, which adhere to the plumage
of the birds. After a time the fruits fall off, possibly on another
island, and so this interesting tree is spread throughout these
small coral sandbanks and islets. The birds are sometimes so

loaded and clogged with these fruits that they are incapable of
flight. Surely here is a wonderful partnership between the tree-frequenting
Noddy and the forest tree that provides shelter and
nesting places for it. It is, indeed, a marvellous method of seed
dispersal.

The number of ocean birds breeding on these tiny island-paradises
is amazing. Minute Mast Head Island is a place free of
all pests—no flies, no mosquitoes, no ticks, no snakes, nor prickly
plants, but a deep shady forest of giant Pisonia trees, sometimes
covered with creepers and lianas, and fringed with pretty flowering
shrubs, fig trees, and long green grass, and surrounded, above
spring-tide level, by a fringe of graceful Horse-tail Sheoaks
(Casuarinas). We calculated that over 100,000 birds bred annually
on this 100-acre sandbank, no point of which rose 10 feet
above spring-tide level. The graceful White-capped Noddies
already mentioned nested high and low on the trees and shrubs.
Petrels in thousands burrowed in the sand under the giant
Pisonias, which are so thickly foliaged that not enough light
penetrates to enable undergrowth to flourish, so the sand was
practically bare in the centre of the island. Reef Herons nested
low on spreading branches or interlacing roots. Silver Gulls and
Oyster-catchers nested on the ground, within about a yard of the
spring-tide mark; Doves, Silver-eyes, Bell-Magpies (Streperas),
Caterpillar-eaters, Kingfishers, and other land birds nested in the
trees, while the White-bellied Sea-Eagle (almost a fac-simile of
the Bald Eagle of America) had his nest overlooking all, on the
highest tree on the island. The Frigate Birds were not nesting
on Mast Head Island, but they roosted each night in the tall Sheoaks
at the water's edge. It was a treat, in the late afternoon,
to see these glorious birds winding up their invisible staircase
into the vast void of upper air. Gloriously and calmly they
sailed up and up, until the merest speck only could be seen. Of
corals, turtles, and other marvels we may not speak here. The
migrating wading-birds had just reached the island after their
long journey from Siberian Tundras. Some were so poor that
we caught Sandpipers by hand. Flocks of Turnstone, Golden
Plover, Godwits, Curlew, and other wading-birds were there, possibly
only resting before continuing their journey to the South.
It was indeed a privilege to live on such a spot for nine days and
to see Nature in some of her most interesting phases.

The two Australian Seagulls illustrate the "law of representatives"
so often referred to by Gould. It is strange how often a
closely similar representative of a Northern bird is found in Australia.
Thus the big Pacific Gull is the representative of the
large Gull of Europe, though its peculiar deepened and orange-colored
bill is distinctive. It does not gain its beautiful white
and black plumage until it is three or more years old, being
brown in the first year, and brown and white in the second year.

The Silver Gull is known to all. Though a dainty-looking
bird, it has a bad character. It is worse than any bird of prey
for stealing eggs and young birds, for let a gannet or other nesting

bird but leave the nest for a moment, and Gulls quickly rob it of
its contents. They are scavengers, and eagerly follow a
steamer at lunch-time to gather the scraps. An interesting sight
of Currie Harbor, King Island, is to see the large company of
Seagulls nesting undisturbed on a tiny, bare, rocky islet close to
the pier.

It was noted that, whenever the Noddies were disturbed, and
rose, protesting loudly, the Gulls immediately gathered and
hovered over the trees containing Noddies' nests. Evidently
they were looking for unprotected eggs.

Placed in the next family are the seven robber Gulls or sea
pirates—Skuas. We read of these birds in the old Royal
Readers, but few recognized them when they followed us to the
Summer School of 1910. They also followed our afternoon-tea
cruise to South Channel fort, and played their usual game of
compelling the Seagulls to give up the scraps they had gathered.

The Robber Gull, or Skua, of Victoria is, strange to say, identical
with the Skua of England. The one that followed the s.s. Lady
Loch to the Summer School is better known in England as the
Arctic Gull or Richardson Skua. It breeds in the far North, so
it is a great traveller.

One interesting fact about these birds is that they show two sets
of plumage. Thus, while each bird, as it gets older, usually
changes its immature and almost uniform dusky plumage for a
white under-surface, an incomplete white collar, and a blackish
cap, yet some retain the dusky plumage throughout life. This
is a good example of "dimorphism," as it is termed. Usually,
instead of picking up their own prey, they watch until some other
bird has captured a meal, and then they rapidly pursue it and
cause it to disgorge. They do not skim over the waves like

Petrels, but show a heavy, labored flight, varied by a short soar.
As the two centre tail feathers project beyond the rest, the birds
can be readily identified as they follow a steamer for tit-bits.

The fifty Australian birds included in the important order of
Waders are remarkably like such birds found inhabiting other
regions of the globe, shore conditions apparently being somewhat
similar the world over. It is interesting to note that thirteen
of the forty-four Australian members of this family of Plover-like
birds are also found in Britain, and that most of the others
are direct representatives of closely-related birds found in other
Countries. No less than twenty-eight of these birds are merely
visitors here, for they breed away in the far North. Many even

nest within the Arctic Circle, in Siberia, for it is a rule that a
migrating bird nests in the colder of the two countries visited.
Strictly, these twenty-eight species are Siberian, or at least
northern, forms, and not Australian birds.

Many members of this group undergo a seasonal change of
plumage when breeding time comes. As they spend this season
in the Northern Hemisphere, we do not see them in their brilliant
colors, but in quiet, mottled browns and grays.

Some are "accidental" visitors to Australia. Possibly they find
their way here by getting mixed with a company of allied birds
on their annual journey south. Thus the Common (British)
Sandpiper is a very rare bird here, though it retains its British
name—Common Sandpiper. Similarly, other European and
American birds have been recorded, and the number of these

far-wandering birds recorded from Australia is likely to be
still further increased. The stout, short-legged Turnstone is the
most cosmopolitan of birds. Breeding in Siberia, so widely does
it roam, that it has visited almost every shore in the world, where,
true to name, it turns the stones in search of sandhoppers.

The two "Oyster-catchers"—"Redbills"—are representatives of
similar birds found almost the world over. Their deepened, flat
bill is said to serve as a pick-axe to force open oysters and mussels.
We found one or two pairs on almost every shore we visited
about Bass Strait, on Eyre Peninsula, and on the Barrier Reef.

The two common Plovers—the Spurwing and Black-breasted—do
not migrate, so we see them in brighter colors. Still, though
bright when noticed, they are yet wonderfully protected, as they
stand quite still. I felt great astonishment on finding that I
had driven, near Lake Tyrrell, into the midst of a company of
over a thousand Black-breasted Plovers, not noticed until the eye
picked out one and then another. It recalled to mind the scene

in the Lady of the Lake, when Fitz James found the hillside alive
with Roderick Dhu's warriors.

The White-headed Stilt, or Long-legged Plover, is one of five
species spread throughout the world. Some people have pretended
to pity the Stilt for being one of Nature's misfits, but
surely they never saw the bird in a state of nature enjoying life,
and gaining an easy living on shallow tidal flats, its long legs
being a beautiful adaptation to the environment in which it lives.

The Banded Stilt is a purely Australian bird, and has no representative
in other countries. These and some other shore-birds
live about tidal flats, and get their food in the soft mud. Their
long bill is often flexible, and the tip is sometimes well supplied
with nerves, so that it is sensitive. The bird can thus detect, in
the soft mud, any animal that would serve for food. It can then
open its bill enough to catch the animal without trouble. The
Avocet's bill is sharply curved upwards, and is one of the most

remarkable of such organs. The Australian Avocet is one
species of a cosmopolitan genus.

Some of the Dottrels live on the dry, open plains of the interior;
others frequent the beaches and shores.

When a bird of prey appears, these plain-living birds squat quite
flat, placing even the head flat on the ground. They thus escape
detection, for the protective coloring of these birds and of their
eggs is marvellous. The story of how a photograph of a Dottrel's
nest was obtained is of value to teachers, for it will remind us that
it is not well to neglect the three R's, and that Nature-study alone
will not give a complete education. Three bird-lovers spent some
time trying to find this nest, while the parent birds flew noisily
around. Suspecting at last that the birds' knowledge of numbers
was probably deficient, the three hid behind a log. Two
then walked away. The birds immediately returned to the nest,
and a valuable photograph was the result. A training in Nature-study,
valuable as it undoubtedly is, is thus not all of our work.

The Painted Snipe breeds in Australia, but the Australian Snipe
breeds in Japan, so it, properly speaking, is not an Australian

bird. Think of the journey twice a year! Six of these wading-birds
even visit New Zealand each year. How do they find their
way there, across a gap of over 1000 miles, without any land whatever?
Inherited memory is strong, but how did the first batches
find their way? Their annual journey supports the geographer
in his surmise that Australia at no very distant date extended
very much farther to the east. Indeed, these birds almost certainly
follow the old coast of the Australian continent.

Snipe, some Plovers, Dottrels, Curlews (Sea), Whimbrels, Godwits,
&c., thus go to the North each year to partake of the abundant
banquet of fruits, &c., preserved in the great ice chamber of
the North. Numberless flocks of birds follow up the melting ice, and
so nest unmolested on the great tundras and plains of Siberia.
They wear their bright wedding dress in the far North, and are
known here only in the quiet mottled browns and grays. In
autumn these birds depart. They travel mostly at night, to

avoid Birds of Prey, and so are seldom seen, though they may be
heard calling as they pass high overhead. They are occasionally
seen with the aid of telescopes as they pass across the face of the
moon.

The Pratincole, or Swallow-Plover, is a representative of an
Old-World family. Its long wings and long legs denote a rapid
runner and a rapid flyer, so that it has little trouble in catching
its insect food, either in the air or on the ground.

Our inland Stone-Curlew has a call very similar to that of the
sea (true) Curlew, but it has a short, straight bill, instead of a
long, arched bill. The proper name of the land Curlew is the
Southern Stone-Curlew or Stone-Plover. It is the only Australian
bird that seems to have the power of varying the color of its

eggs. If the eggs are laid in grass, they are greenish; if amongst
ironstone, the eggs are reddish-brown; if on sand, the eggs are
tawny; and so on. Other ground-laying birds seem to pick out
the soil that matches the color of their eggs, and lay there only.
Possibly local races of the Southern Stone-Curlew keep to the
one class of country. However, the eggs do match the surroundings,
and the birds nest on different kinds of soil and rock.

In Family 42, the only Australian bird is the Australian Bustard,
our representative of a widely-spread family, a member of
which formerly bred in Great Britain. It is the well-known "Wild
Turkey." As it is a good table bird, it is generally shot on sight.
This is a mistake, as it is (as Mr. C. French, Government Entomologist,
has pointed out) worth many times its table value as an
insect destroyer. None of the family has spread to America.

As no Bustard occurs in the regions between Australia and India,
this bird supplies a good example of what is known to zoo-geographers
as "discontinuous distribution." "Discontinuous
distribution," as applied to land animals, e.g., marsupials found
in America and Australia, ratite birds in South America, South
Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, or the tapir, found in Central
America and Malaysia, implies a land connexion (not necessarily
complete at any one period) to allow of the gradual spread
of the animals. Of course, as flying birds can pass easily from
one region to another, "discontinuous distribution," as applied to
them, cannot have so much importance attached to it as indicating
previous land connexions.

Australia, fortunately, has one representative of Order XI.—Cranes.
This is the Native Companion, the only true Crane found
in Australia. These are interesting birds, with their "quadrille

parties," "corroborees," and dances. They live chiefly on vermin—insects,
lizards, &c. The great Gould said: "Its presence adds
greatly to the interest of the scenery." Would that more Australians
thought so!

Cranes are amongst the best of flyers. They are said to fly
sometimes at a height of from three and a half to five miles, and
have been seen to cross lofty mountains in Central Asia without
increasing their altitude. Perhaps because of its inappropriate
name—Native Companion—some have proposed to regard this
bird as the typical Australian bird, but it is not so. In fact, it
is our one representative of an almost world-wide group.

In Order XII. Australia has representatives of the Ibises,
Spoonbills, Storks, Herons, Egrets, Night Herons, and Bitterns, so
well known in every part of the world.

Amongst the world's birds, few are better known than the Ibis.
This bird was so highly prized by the ancient Egyptians as to be
considered sacred, and they thought enough of it to embalm it.
As Egypt depended on the overflow of the Nile for food supply,

and as this overflow was heralded by the arrival of the migratory
Ibis from the South, it was natural for the Egyptians to connect
the rise of the river with this bird, and thus look for its approach.
Again, the Ibis is an insect destroyer, and, as Egypt was subject
to plagues of grasshoppers, it undoubtedly rendered as valuable
service there as it does here. This is another reason that
has been assigned for the esteem in which this valuable bird was
held. However, it is now almost unknown in Egypt.

In Australia we have three Ibises. One, the Sacred Ibis, or
White Ibis, is practically identical with the Sacred Ibis of Egypt.
Our second Ibis is the even more valuable Straw-necked Ibis,
which extends its labors to plains and pastures, while the Sacred
Ibis is rarely seen except on swampy lands. The Straw-necked
Ibis is restricted to Australia. It seems to be increasing in
numbers, for I have seen small and large flocks in many parts of
the Eastern States recently. It has an insatiable appetite for
grasshoppers and other insects. This bird is a valuable asset to
Australia, and yet thoughtless farmers used to shoot it. Mr. Le
Souëf and Dr. C. Ryan came upon a flock of Ibises breeding in
Riverina. They estimated the flock to contain 240,000 birds.
They found that each bird shot contained on the average
2000 young grasshoppers. Think of it; 480,000,000 grasshoppers
a day! Where are those birds now, when needed to stem a locust
plague? We have to pay the price of our folly in destroying
valuable birds. A third Ibis is identical with the little Glossy
Ibis of Europe.

The six Spoonbills are found throughout the world except in
New Zealand and the northern parts of North America. They
used to breed in England before man's selfishness and stupidity
destroyed them and their nesting-places. They breed at present
in the Murray swamps.

The Australian Stork—the Jabiru—does not come to the
Southern parts of Australia, but breeds on the Queensland coast.
It is a quaint-shaped, though beautifully-colored, bird. Its large,
awkward-looking bill has a slight curve upwards.

Now come those beautiful birds, the Egrets. Man's cupidity
and selfishness, and woman's desire for ornament, seem to have
doomed these birds to total extermination, for the plume trade,
which is responsible for some of the "most abominable cruelty
practised in the animal world," is a war of extermination. Egrets
are shy, and are approachable only in the breeding season. At
that time they are, in obedience to parental instincts, brave in
defence of their young. It is just then that the plume-hunters
visit the rookeries and shoot the parents, leaving the helpless,
almost fully-fledged, young to die in the nest, so high overhead.
And all for what? Could anyone who has seen the devastated
nests, with the famished bodies of the fledglings rotting in the
sun, ever take pleasure in Egret plumes decking the head of a
sister or wife? Women of refinement and tender heart will
refuse to wear the proceeds of human cruelty. Those engaged
in the trade resort to the mean trick of calling the

plumes "Osprey plumes." Now, the Osprey is a Fish-Hawk, and
so possibly of little use to the land-dweller, but these plumes grow
on the back and neck of a valuable insect destroyer. The extent
of this trade is appalling. At one plume sale, held in London
on 4th August, 1909, the breeding plumes of 24,000 birds were
offered for sale. Think of it! The slow starvation of 40,000
nestlings, the death of 64,000 birds, to provide the plumes for one
day's sale. No, ladies, if you consider you are in need of ornament,
wear ostrich plumes and pheasants' feathers, for these do
not involve the death of a bird, but rather the reverse, for the
greater the demand for these feathers, the more birds will be
bred; but spare the Egret.

The Reef Heron is found on beaches from the Bay of Bengal
to New Zealand. It has given scientists much trouble, for it
has a pure-white form and a dark slaty-gray form. We
found and photographed the nests on Mast Head and Heron
Islands. This was a prize, for no photograph of a Reef Heron's
nest had been published previously. As soon as the falling tide
exposed the reef round the island, Reef Herons, Gulls, Plovers,
Dottrels, and Terns, went out to have their next meal.

The "Blue Crane" of the country dwellers is the "White-fronted
Heron" of the bird-lover. "Fronted" in a bird name refers only
to the forehead. Herons are valuable birds to the grazier,
farmer, and irrigationist, for, in addition to insects and snails,
they eat yabbies (fresh-water crayfish), which bore into the banks
and bed of irrigation channels, and so cause much loss of water
by soakage.

Distinguished from these birds mainly by its nocturnal habit is
the interesting Nankeen Night Heron, our one representative of
a practically cosmopolitan genus. Our one Night Heron hides
on a leafy bough asleep during the daytime. About dusk he sets
off to a swamp.

The Australian Bittern, also our one representative of a cosmopolitan
genus, skulks in a bed of reeds. Hence it is seldom
seen. Its loud, dismal, booming note probably assisted in the
formation of the Bunyip legends of the blacks. I saw more Bitterns
in a recent trip down the Brisbane than I ever saw before.

At breeding time these birds assemble in very large companies,
and their nesting-places are called heronries or rookeries.
The chief rookeries here are in the Riverina, where the great
annual overflow of that fine river, the Murray, converts the country
into a great series of lakes and swamps. Here water animals
live in large numbers, and thousands of birds take advantage of
this abundant food supply to nest there in the enormous redgums.

Each bird is the close relative of a similar bird in Europe, so
that what is read concerning Herons and Egrets there, applies
equally to our members of this widely-distributed family. Eating
grasshoppers and other insects in great numbers, they are friends
of the farmer and grazier. Destroying yabbies and other burrowing
water animals, they are valuable allies of the irrigationist,
and it is decidedly bad policy to shoot one.

Swans, Geese, and Ducks, the Swimming Birds grouped in
Order XIII., are all classified in one family, though there are
many sub-families.

At the head of the Australian birds is the Black Swan—that
rara avis which, possibly, has done more to advertize Australia
than any other Australian animal or plant. A "black" swan
was an "impossibility," so this bird was one of the strongest
factors in establishing Australia's reputation as a land of paradoxes
and contradictions.

The Black Swan is well known outside Australia, as it is common
in every park and garden in Europe. Gould feared that it
would be exterminated here, but fortunately Australians are now
learning to appreciate their own land, and there is no danger of
such a calamity.

Eight species of Swans are known to occur all over the world
with the exception of New Zealand and Africa.

In the next sub-family there is but one bird—the Semipalmated
Goose of Australia. This bird, better known as the Magpie Goose,
has its feet but half-webbed, hence its specific name, semipalmata.

It is getting rare, though I heard of six near Colac recently.

Again, the only living representative of the next sub-family is
the Cape Barren Goose, which is common in city gardens in
Adelaide. It is also becoming rare. It is found only in Tasmania,
the Bass Strait Islands, and Southern Australia. We
visited its nesting place near Flinders Island. It is a very pugnacious
bird, so it is difficult to keep with other birds.

After the Goose sub-family comes the group which includes our
"Wood Duck," or, as it is called, the Maned Goose, for its bill is
goose-like. It is a common bird in Australia. Two allied
genera are found in South America and North-east Africa
respectively.

In the next sub-family come the domestic Ducks and most of the
wild Ducks of Australia. This group is often referred to as the
"Freshwater or River Ducks."

First come two kinds of Whistling Ducks—so called on account
of their whistling note uttered while flying. These are rare
Ducks, one of which is found as far as India; the other is
occasionally seen in New Zealand, as well as in Australia. The
Sheldrake, or Shieldrake (Mountain Duck) is the largest Australian
Duck, and one of the most handsome of the sub-family. It
is nowhere very plentiful, though one or more pairs appear in
most suitable localities. As it is unfit for the table, it should be
spared as an ornament to the landscape.

The Black Duck is very similar to the common wild Duck (Mallard)
of England. Our Black Duck does not change color with

the season, nor is the male different in color from the female.

The Australian Teal is closely similar to the Teal of Europe.
It is a grass feeder, and is a good table bird. The female is very
different from the male. It is impossible to distinguish the male
Gray Teal from the female Teal when in the free state. Mr.
Keartland (ex-President of the Field Naturalist Club, and ornithologist
to the Horn and Calvert exploring expeditions) has shown
that there is a big difference in weight. The male of the
smaller Gray Teal is not brightly colored like the male Chestnut-breasted
Teal.

The remarkable Shoveller comes next. It is closely similar to
the English Shoveller. Strange that this name was first used
for the Spoonbill. The Shovellers are found the world over.
The males are very brightly colored in the nesting season.

Unlike most other birds, Swans and Ducks lose the whole of
their wing feathers at once when moulting, so that for a short
time they cannot fly. As a protection, the gaudy ones acquire a
quiet, inconspicuous coloration for a time, so that the male is said
to get an "eclipse plumage." Many other birds get a bright dress
for the breeding season only, but the male Duck wears his bright

dress for the whole year, except in the moulting period. It is then
"eclipsed," with the corresponding advantage that he is protected
from his many enemies at a time when he is most helpless.

The remarkable Pink-eared Duck has no close relative. It has
a small pink spot between the eye and ear, and so is called pink-eyed
or pink-eared. It is found only in Australia. The female
is similar in color to the male. The name Wigeon, or Widgeon,
sometimes applied to this Duck, properly belongs to another of the
fresh-water Ducks which is not found in Australia. Hence, this
name should not be used for our bird.

Another peculiar Australian Duck is the Freckled Duck. It
is a very rare bird. One taken on the ornithologists' excursion
to Eyre Peninsula was considered a prize. So far as is known,
it does not change color with the season, nor has the male or
female the usual bright metallic patch seen on the wing of a Duck.

The "Salt-water Ducks" form the next sub-family. These
Ducks, though, are not always true to name, for they are not confined
to the salt water. The Victorian representative is the well-known
White-eyed Duck, or Hardhead. This Duck was common
on the Botanic Gardens Lake, Melbourne, until it was emptied
some time ago. Thus, our one "Salt-water Duck" was often seen
on fresh water. In the same sub-family come the Eider-Ducks

of Iceland and the Logger-head, Racehorse, or Steamer Duck, of
Magellan Straits, which is said to lose the power of flight on reaching
maturity after the first moult. Thus the life-history tells
us that this bird is a degenerate form, and not a primitive flightless
form, for it has evidently descended from flying ancestors.
It uses its wings to row itself along at great speed.

The ninth sub-family of this group of swimming birds contains
two native Ducks. The Blue-billed Duck, the first of these, is
"especially adapted for immersion and for obtaining its food
from the bottom of the water rather than on its surface." It
was thought by Gould to be confined to the coastal lagoons of
Western Australia, but it has since been recorded from inland in
Victoria, and four specimens have been taken in Tasmania. It
remains under the water for a considerable time, and, if hunted,

flaps along the surface with its short wings, but hesitates to exercise
its "feeble grebe-like flight."

Some writers declare that the large Musk Duck is the most
remarkable of the many remarkable birds of Australia. It is the
only known species of the genus, and is "singularly different from
every other member of the Duck family," as Gould points out.
Gould further says that "this extraordinary bird reminds one of
the Cormorants. Like many other of these antipodean forms, it
must be regarded as an anomaly." The male has a lengthened,
stiff, and leather-like appendage under the bill. The female is
without this pouch, and is but half the size of the male. A pair
is often to be seen on a sheltered bay or on an inland dam, and
yet this bird has very feeble powers of flight. It is difficult
to cause one to take to flight. Mr. A. J. Campbell summed up
an instructive discussion on this point in the columns of The
Australasian by concluding that Musk Ducks can fly, though they
do so almost entirely at night.

There are six families of birds included in Order XIV.—the
Totally-webbed Swimmers. All four toes are joined by a web.
Ducks have three toes only joined by the web, the hind toe

being free. Representatives of the six families are found in Australia.
These birds are fishers par excellence.

In the first family come the well-known Cormorants or Shags,
birds found in almost every country in the world. Forty-two
species are known, of which five occur in Australia.

The large Black Cormorant is the common Black Cormorant of
Britain. It has a very extensive range over North America,
Greenland, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

The little Black Cormorant is found in Australia, from the
Moluccas to Borneo, and in New Zealand. Indeed, New Zealand
is the stronghold of Cormorants, as it possesses many species.

The White-breasted and Pied Cormorants are so closely similar
that possibly they will yet prove to be one species. Each is
glistening white below, and jet black above. The bill is said
to be longer in the Pied Cormorant, and the patch of naked skin
near the eye is yellow, whereas, in the White-breasted Cormorant,

this patch is said to be blackish or purplish. The Little Cormorant
is also black and white. Its throat and upper chest are
yellow.

Mr. Mattingley, C.M.Z.S., and others claim that the Cormorant,
by feeding its young on yabbies, which, they say, prey on
fish eggs, saves many more fish in the young stage than it ever
eats in the adult stage, and hence it is really "a friend" of the
anglers and fish. One thing is certain—fish were formerly much
more abundant, and so were Cormorants. Anglers, collect evidence,
and balance good with evil. Cormorants have a long, narrow
bill, with a strongly-hooked tip. They are such expert fishers
that in China they are much used to catch fish. Some will probably
be surprised to learn that this custom formerly held in
England, for the "Master of the Cormorants" was once one of the
officers of the Royal household.

Some Cormorants nest in company in the Murray swamps, while
others retire to a rocky island, such as Storehouse Island, east of
Flinders Island, to breed.

These birds are expert swimmers and divers, so that one of the
common names for them is "Diver," but the true Divers, as
already pointed out, are Northern Hemisphere birds, and are
placed in Family 25.

The Darter, or Snake Bird, is practically identical with the
Water-Turkey of the United States. Sometimes, when alarmed,
it submerges its body, leaving the head and neck exposed. It
swims rapidly in this position. Four of these birds are known,
and they are spread over America, Africa, Madagascar, Southern
Asia, New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand. The Darter was
frequently seen on a recent trip to Enoggera Reservoir, the storage
basin for Brisbane. The long, stiletto-like bill is used to impale
its prey, while the flexible neck assists the spearing operation.

The next family contains the famous "Boobies" of sailors—the
stupid Gannets, or Solan Geese, that were too stupid to escape
from danger. Gould says our Gannet out-boobies the Booby, for
he landed on a flat rock and secured five specimens by hand before
the rest shuffled over the edge of the cliff and took flight. The
Australian bird can scarcely be distinguished from its British
cousin. It is common in Australian seas, where it can be seen
diving for fish or flying swiftly round looking for prey. There
is a large Gannet rookery on Cat Island, east of Flinders Island,
where probably 4000 pairs of these fine birds nest each year.
This was visited by a party of ornithologists in the Manawatu in
1908.

The famous Frigate-Bird we read of in the old school readers
was twice taken in Port Phillip Bay. It is the best of flyers, as
it can "breakfast on the Senegal (Africa), and dine on the
Amazon." The two Frigate-Birds are common in Australian
tropical seas. As already mentioned we met the Frigate Bird on

Mast Head Island. Its wings are long, the forked tail also is
long, but the legs and feet are very small. It is a creature of
the air, and gets its living by compelling hard-working sea-birds
to disgorge their prey.

The last bird in this varied Order is the Pelican. Our Australian
Pelican is one of the largest of its tribe. Its enormous
pouch distinguishes it at once. The ten Pelicans are practically
world-wide in their distribution. On the trip of the Manawatu
last year round the islands of Bass Strait, we visited the Pelicans'
nesting-place on Penguin Island. This bird is practically
identical with the "Pelican of the wilderness" mentioned in Holy
Writ. The Pelican enjoys a reputation for maternal care of her
offspring; indeed, she was said to feed the young with her own
blood. This was probably due to the fact that one species of
Pelican has a blood-red tip to the bill. Young Pelicans have not
the long bill or the pouch. Thus this bird illustrates the truth of
the statement that each animal in its development climbs its own
ancestral tree, or, to say it in another form, each animal in its
development recapitulates the life-history of the race. The Pelican
has evidently descended from birds that possessed a short bill.

The well-known Birds of Prey, so keen of eye, so rapid of flight,
so fearless in courage, and so matchless in fight, have spread over
almost the whole known world. The Eagles of one land are,

therefore, much like the Eagles of another. The Harriers of England
are practically identical with the Harriers of Australia and
New Zealand, and, in fact, of almost any other land. The Falcon,
so famous in mediæval times, is practically identical with the
Falcon of Australia and Tasmania. The Australian Fish Hawk
is the universal Fish Hawk or Osprey, for there is probably but
one Osprey, having an almost world-wide range. The naming of
these birds, though, has been a stumbling-block to us. To Australians
they are all Hawks—even our gigantic and glorious Eagle
has been reduced to the ignominious level of an "Eaglehawk,"
though our male Eagle is the largest male Eagle known, outrivalling,
as it does, both the Bald Eagle of America and the Golden
Eagle of Europe. A source of confusion, too, has arisen from
the introduction of so many of our popular names from America,
Thus, the Gum-tree (Eucalypt) is not a Gum, the 'Possum is not

the carnivorous Opossum of America, the Goanna is not the
equivalent of the vegetarian American Iguana; the "Wild Cat" is
not a Cat, nor is the "Native Bear" a Bear, nor even remotely
related to one, nor is the Kestrel a Sparrowhawk. It is an
American error in popular naming, which has given us the Kestrel
as the equivalent of the American Sparrowhawk, while the
Sparrowhawk of the ornithologist is the equivalent of the Sparrowhawk
of Britain.

In one respect, we are unfortunate in this new land. No mass
of association and tradition has yet had time to crystallize about
our native animals and plants. Our poets have not been able to
sing of our birds for want of names and knowledge. Little has
been done beyond the giving and frequent altering of scientific
names, and the misapplication of names of animals and plants
living in other lands to often totally different animals and plants
here, so that confusion has reigned supreme. However, in bird
matters, at least, we are on a better footing, for the bird-lovers
have provided a common, and in most cases an appropriate, name
for each bird.

The American Bobolink and Chickadee are famous birds,
chiefly on account of an appropriate name; so is the British
Cuckoo, while its even more noisy, more common, and practically
identical Australian cousin is still unknown, or rather was until
recently. The introduction of Bird Day has already produced
gratifying results. We need good descriptive names for our
varied and beautiful birds—more children's and poets' names, and
less of the deadly formal "Yellow-vented Parrakeet," "Blue-bellied
Lorikeet," and "Warty-faced Honeyeater" for some of the most
glorious of the world's birds.

The old Order Raptores—birds of prey—included Hawks and
Eagles, and Owls. These are now placed in two orders as
"Diurnal Birds of Prey"—Hawks, and "Nocturnal Birds of
Prey"—Owls. They all seize prey with the very well-developed
talons, and not with the bill. Hence they were called Raptores—seizing
birds. They use these talons when flying, and do not
catch prey in scrub, or very close to the ground, unless in a clear
space.

The two Harriers are typically Ground Hawks. The name is
said to be derived from the habit these birds are said to possess
of harrying birds. They are generally called "Swamp Hawks,"
and may frequently be seen flying low over bushes, to beat
birds out.

The Goshawks—i.e., Goosehawks—possibly received their name
by confusion, as possibly a Falcon to hunt Geese was kept in
olden days, but probably it was not this bird. Three of these
birds are rare. The White Goshawk is a fine bird, and is
confined to Australia and Tasmania. The Australian Goshawk
is said to be the only troublesome Hawk to the poultry
farmer, and he bears a bad name generally. The Lesser Goshawk
is a casual visitor in the Eastern States.

The Sparrowhawk of the ornithologist is much feared by small
birds. He lurks in ambush, suddenly flashes out upon his prey,
and is away with it instantly. The male is one of the
smallest of Hawks. It is an almost universal rule in this order
of birds that the females are larger, often much larger, than the
males, and that there are several changes of plumage before the
adult plumage is finally donned, so it is often a matter of difficulty
to determine exactly the name of one of these birds.

Eagles are found the world over except in New Zealand. Our
Eagle has the honor of being, as already stated, the largest Eagle
in the world. It is also of undoubted courage, as its specific
name, audax (bold) would lead one to suppose. It is, further,
Gould says, of a "far more pleasing and elegant contour" than the
Golden Eagle, the "pride and pest of the parish." Whoever heard
of an Australian who was proud of his Eagle, though it is something
to be proud of? Let our noble bird appear near a house,
and there is a rush for a gun. On Eyre Peninsula we found the
Eagles fed their young on rabbits, a serious pest in Australia.

The equivalent of our Sea Eagle is the White-headed or Bald
Eagle of America, the female of which is the same length as the

male of our Eagle, 38 inches. Many of these glorious Sea Eagles
were floating, with their peculiar butterfly-like flight, over the
Brisbane River, and added much to our enjoyment of a recent bird
excursion there. We found one nest on each island in the Capricorn
Group. On Mast Head Island the nest was in a tree about
60 feet high. On tiny Erskine Island, where there were no big
trees, it was built on the ground, though it had been added to
until it is now over 6 feet high. The fully-feathered dark-brown
young bird sat on the edge of the nest, and formed a good photographic
subject. Eagles were ruthlessly slaughtered in the
British Isles. There is a shadow of an excuse there, perhaps,
with their game preserves, where rabbits and birds are bred
for sporting purposes. These reasons do not exist here. But it
is pleasing to find on record that, even there, "Lord Breadalbane,
who died in 1862, thought that the spectacle of a soaring Eagle
was a fitting adjunct to the grandeur of the Argyllshire mountain
scenery, and a good equivalent for the occasional loss of a lamb."

Though the Sea Eagle lives mainly on fish and refuse cast up
by the sea, it is pitiful to read that, though this interesting, picturesque,
and valuable bird was once common, not one is left on
the mainland of Scotland. Could blind, unreasoning slaughter
do more? Why kill a harmless bird? But it is not only harmless;
it is of distinct value in its sphere in Nature. Hawks altogether
are misunderstood and misjudged. It is doubtful if it
pays a farmer, aye, even a poultry farmer, to shoot Hawks. They
might steal a few chickens, but they do not live on them. They
live mainly on rabbits, mice, rats, and insects.

The Whistling Eagle whistles while flying about in the fine
large flight-houses of the Adelaide Zoological Gardens. One fine
specimen accompanied the Federal trawler Endeavour down Gladstone
Harbor, but not far from shore, for it returned when we
headed for the open ocean and the fairyland of the Great Barrier
Reef.

Kites used to be excessively common about many English
towns, where they acted as scavengers. The introduction of the
shot-gun has exterminated them. They are world-wide in distribution,
so what you read about European Kites will fit Australian
Kites. They are, perhaps, the most graceful of flyers,
gliding, soaring, hovering, and performing all sorts of aërial
evolutions. The toy kites of our childhood were suggested by the
flight of these once common birds. Now, alas! they are very
rarely seen. Being mainly insectivorous, they are invaluable
birds, and we can ill spare them in this country, where insect life
is so abnormally prolific.

The Black-breasted Buzzard is the third largest of our Diurnal
Birds of Prey. It is a rare visitor in Southern Australia, but in
seasons of drought it comes down from Central Australia.

The Falcon, which our ancestors trained for hawking, is almost
identical with our Falcon, while our Little Falcon is, for its size, the
"boldest and swiftest of all birds of prey," for it has been observed
to decapitate a flying Duck with a blow of the edge of its wing.

In Brisbane we had the pleasure of spending an interesting afternoon
with Mr. J. Bell, who formerly practised falconry with
trained Australian Falcons.

The Kestrel of Australia is almost identical with the Kestrel
of Europe. You must have noticed with interest its habit of
hovering. One incident of the 1909 Ornithologists' Congress
will show that, even in the midst of a crowded city like Adelaide,
it is possible for scientific work in ornithology to be done. While
the Director of Education, Mr. A. Williams, Mr. Le Souëf (ex-Pres.,
A.O.U.), Mr. A. J. Campbell (Pres., A.O.U.), Mr. Robert
Hall (Vice-Pres., A.O.U.), and myself were walking from the
Education Office to Grote Street School, a Kestrel was seen on the
grass in a small square. The members of the party were astonished
to see the Kestrel rise carrying a bird, possibly a Sparrow,
in its talons. Now, the interest of this observation is that most
of our ornithologists were prepared to state that the Kestrel is
entirely insectivorous, and never touches small birds. However,
an observation in the heart of Adelaide is of value in this matter
of scientific interest. This bird, unfortunately, is generally

called the Sparrowhawk, a name which belongs to a much bolder
Australian bird of prey (No. 157), which does eat small birds.

Kestrels are very fond of mice, and would, if allowed, spend
time protecting the farmer's haystacks, but if a Kestrel comes
near the farmhouse the gun is at once produced, and so the farmer
loses the services of one of his best friends.

Jeffries and other Nature-lovers have written on the marvellous
powers of hovering possessed by these birds. In fact, the Kestrel
is frequently called the Windhover. In Australia Kestrels frequently
nest in a hollow tree, but do not lay the usual white egg.

The Osprey is another example of bad naming. The word is
said to be a corruption of Ossifrage, the "bone-breaker." As it
feeds on fish, it has no big bones to break. It is spread from
"Alaska to Brazil, Lapland to Natal, Japan to Tasmania, and
even out to the Pacific Isles," and it may be the same bird
throughout, though Dr. Sharpe has allowed three species in the
"Handlist of Birds." "The A.O.U. Check-list of North American
Birds, 1910," however, recognizes the North American bird as a
sub-species only, so it is possible the Australian bird will be also
listed as a sub-species when the Royal Australasian Ornithologists'
Union adopts its check-list in Sydney this year. These

birds eat living fish, which they catch by plunging into the sea.
Occasionally they drive their talons into too big a fish, and, not
being able to withdraw them, are drowned.

Flinders, in his journal, wrote about the enormous nests he
met on rocky points, and considered they were built by a great
"Dinornis."

The Osprey and the White-bellied Sea Eagle, however, build on
rocky points if no trees are available, and add to the nest each
year. It is interesting to read in the Western Australian Year
Book article on birds that the Government has placed an Osprey's
nest in the cave district, "under the protection of the Cave Warden."
A pleasing interest is growing in Australian nature in its
many forms.

Just as the Diurnal Birds of Prey (e.g., Hawks) are closely
related to those of the Northern Hemisphere, so are the Nocturnal
Birds of Prey (Owls) very closely related to those of the Old

World. The different kinds of Owls are so closely similar that
there are many disputes as to their classification, and it is not
likely that we shall ever be able to recognize in the living, free
state all the species recognized by scientists.

Indeed, I was much interested at the Adelaide Museum to see
our leading ornithologists fail to pick out the skins of two English
Barn Owls when they were placed with three Australian
Lesser Masked Owls, and yet ornithologists give our birds
such widely-different names that literature is useless to us.
These names have seriously hampered the popularization of bird-study
in Australia. If ornithologists, with skins in hand, cannot
separate them, what is the use of manufacturing species?

As Owls are active late in the afternoon or at night, there has
always been a certain amount of mystery regarding them, and,
speaking generally, the ordinary observer knows little of them.
Two of the Australian birds have forced themselves on our notice
to some extent. The Powerful Owl, the largest of our Owls, has
alarmed many by means of its blood-curdling screeches heard in
quiet forest gullies.

The Boobook Owl, though not often seen, calls "Mopoke," which
sounded like "Boobook" to the aboriginal ear, but became
"Cuckoo"—the best-loved bird-call of their far-distant home to the
ears of the homesick first white residents. And was it not, they
asked, what one might expect in a country where Christmas came
at the wrong time of the year, where the trees were always green,
and shed their bark instead of their leaves—where the leaves

grew vertically, instead of horizontally, and so gave no shade—was
it not natural that the Cuckoo, a day bird in England, should
become a night bird in this land of paradoxes and contradictions?
Thus Australia's reputation was added to even by the Boobook
Owl.

Confusion was caused, for, when daylight came, and the Frogmouth
was seen sitting in the tree, the Frogmouth was supposed
to be responsible for the frequent calls of the previous night.
However, some reliable observers, notably Mr. C. H. McLennan,
"Mallee Bird," and Mr. T. H. Tregellas, claim that the Frogmouth
does call "Mopoke'" occasionally, but the Boobook Owl is
the bird that is responsible for the frequent "Mopoke" on calm
evenings.

The Owls are divided into two families. The members of the
first family—the Owls Proper, or Hawk-Owls—have the facial
disc almost absent, while in the second family the facial disc is
complete. In each, the eyes are directly obliquely forward, and,

since they are not capable of much movement, the bird turns its
head from side to side. Though mainly nocturnal, Owls are
sometimes seen hunting for their prey by day. As they feed
mostly on mice, rats, and insects, they are very valuable birds.
The feathers are very soft, with a weak central axis, so that no
sound is made when flying. They are thus able to approach
their prey without giving warning. The Powerful Owl well
deserves its name, as it possesses great strength, and is a formidable
enemy if wounded. However, Owls are, fortunately,
seldom shot at.

Like Hawks, Owls catch their prey with and carry it in their
feet, unless the feet are required for climbing. One peculiarity
of the feet is that the bird can reverse one toe, so that it can have
three toes in front and one behind, like most birds, or two in
front and two behind, like Parrots and Cuckoos.

Although not so strong of flight as the Diurnal Birds of Prey
(e.g., Hawks), Owls have managed to spread throughout the
world, so that they are found even in New Zealand. The different
kinds are not easily separated, so most people are satisfied
when they have classed a bird as an Owl, though you will
probably want to divide them into two groups—the Owls
Proper and the Barn Owls.

While Australia possesses representatives of nearly all the
important widely-spread families of birds this favored land also

contains many birds that are unknown elsewhere. In addition,
there are some groups which are found in other continents, but
which reach their highest development here. Conspicuous
amongst these are Parrots and Cockatoos. Australians are so
accustomed to see these beautiful birds on every country road,
and in cages outside their houses, that they do not appreciate
their beauty or their interest, for "familiarity breeds contempt,"
even with bird life.

When one reflects that no figure of a Parrot is found in ancient
Egyptian art, and that no Parrot is mentioned in the Bible, then
one begins to understand the interest of Europeans in these
"spoilt children" of the animal world, the "monkeys of the bird
world," and "the cream of the Australian avifauna."

Their tameness, their affection, their entertaining habits, and
their remarkable powers of speech, all help to render Parrots the

favorites amongst birds. The brilliance of their plumage, their
intelligence, and their longevity excite wonder, for Parrots have
been known to live 100 years in captivity. Presumably, they
would live even longer in a state of nature. Humboldt recorded,
as quoted in Newton's "Dictionary of Birds," "that in South
America he met with a venerable bird, which remained the sole
possessor of a literally dead language, the whole tribe of Indians,
Atures by name, who spoke it, having become extinct."

Australians will perhaps be surprised to learn that there are
no Parrots or Cockatoos in Europe, and none in Asia, excepting
India, none in Africa north of the Tropic of Cancer, and only two
in North America, and that one of these is rapidly becoming
extinct, and that Africa and India are poor in Parrots. Thus
South America and Australasia alone are left as the lands that
contain these interesting birds in any number. While South
America contains the largest Parrots—the Macaws—all the South
American species belong to one family. In the Australian region
six families of Parrots are represented. Four of them are confined
to the region, while but one species of the fifth family
(Cockatoos) is found outside the region.

The Brush-tongued Parrots, or "Lorikeets," are a purely Australian
family. Some of these are very common at times in
flowering eucalypts, even in the public gardens and streets. The

Blue Mountain Parrot, very common at times, is a giant of the
family. It has been described as a "noble bird, gorgeously
apparelled." Its vernacular name of Blue-bellied Lorikeet has
been altered to Blue Mountain Lorikeet. We found these birds
nesting in the big sugar-gums bordering Warunda Creek, Eyre
Peninsula. They keenly and noisily resented our curiosity, and
screeched much as we tried to discover them amongst the green
foliage. Though so gaudy, they were picked out with difficulty.
This bird was very troublesome in my garden at Bengworden, near
the Gippsland Lakes, where, when the apples were about the size
of marbles, they tore them to pieces to get the developing
"pips." In common with the other members of the family, they
have a swift, direct flight, and screech much when flying. The
"Green Keets," generally called "Green Leeks," which are so very
numerous at times, are often accompanied by two other Lorikeets,
the Little and Purple-crowned Lorikeets. These green birds
hang, head down, among the eucalyptus leaves, and brush up the
honey from the flowers with their brush tongue. They follow the
flowering of the eucalypts from district to district, and since the
eucalypts flower at irregular intervals, these birds are not so
regular in their movements as Swifts, Snipe, Curlews, Cuckoos,

and other migratory birds. For this reason the birds may be
absent from a district for some years, and then suddenly appear
again in great numbers.

Cockatoos are almost confined to the Australian region. This
includes the islands north-west of Australia out to Wallace's line,
passing between Celebes and the Philippine Islands, Celebes and
Borneo, and between the small islands of Lombok and Bali, east
of Java. These islands, though but fifteen miles apart, "differ
far more from each other in their birds and quadrupeds than do
England and Japan. The birds of the one are extremely unlike
those of the other." Another authority says that the faunas of
Bali and Lombok are more unlike than those of South America
and Africa. Bali has Woodpeckers, Barbets, Bulbuls, and Black
and White Magpie-Robins, none of which is found in Lombok,
where we find Screaming Cockatoos, Friar-birds, and other Honey-eaters,
and the strange mound-building Megapodes and numerous
other remarkable birds. This narrow strait is over 1000 fathoms
in depth, and is probably one of the most ancient and most permanent
dividing lines in the world. Instead of being united to
Asia, it is probable that Australia has been more recently joined
to New Zealand, South America, and South Africa. Only one
Cockatoo transgresses Wallace's line to the west, and that is
found in the Philippine Islands; evidently it has spread there
from the adjacent part of the Australian region.

The sombre, slow-flying Black Cockatoo is the largest of all
Cockatoos. It is seen fairly often in small companies, especially
on wattles and eucalypts, the wood of which it tears to pieces

with its powerful bill to get the insect larvæ feeding there. It
is a valuable forest-saving bird.

The Glossy or Leach Black Cockatoo is named after Dr. Leach,
who did a great amount of work on Australian animals about 100
years ago. It is a rare bird, and may readily be distinguished
by its smaller size and more glossy plumage.

The peculiar gray Gang-gang Cockatoos are common in parts of
the forest country. The male is easily recognized by his red head
and crest. I occasionally see these interesting birds in the big
eucalypt forests of Gippsland. I was surprised to discover that,
in South Gippsland, it is generally called the Galah, a name which
belongs to quite a different bird (194).

The screeching, fussy White Cockatoo, with its delicate sulphur
crest, is well known. Many country dwellers enjoy the privilege
of often seeing these snowy-white birds almost covering
a dead tree. They are favorites as pets, and live to a good old
age. They render good service at times by digging up and eating
grasshoppers' eggs, though they do damage to maize and other
crops. As they post sentinels, they are difficult birds to approach.

The Pink Cockatoo (Major Mitchell) is unfortunately becoming
rare. It was fairly common when I taught in a Mallee school,
near where Hopetoun now is. It has been described as "quite
the most beautiful of all the Cockatoos, being a harmony of delicate
rose-pink and white, with a handsome crest of acuminate
feathers barred in crimson, yellow, and white." It does not take
kindly to captivity. It nested in the smaller "spouts" of the
green "box-trees" in the "box-flats" and swamps about the Goyura
School, south of Lake Corrong.

What is more glorious than a mob of Rose-breasted Cockatoos
(Galahs), 500 strong, airing their beauties and graces as they
take a constitutional before retiring for the night? Probably no
other kind of bird shows better company-flying than Galahs; now

one sheet of a delicate gray lavender, and the next instant a flash
of brilliant salmon-pink, as the whole company turns and wheels,
obedient to some command or signal unperceived by us; again,
the sun lights up the pale-pink crests and gray backs, as they turn
once more and wheel, screeching, to continue their evolutions further
afield. It is a sight that lingers in the memory. They are
charming pets, and some talk well. Their beauty adds charm to
our almost perfectly level great inland plains.

The delicately-colored and friendly Cockatoo Parrot, with its
immovable crest, takes a sub-family to itself. It migrates from
the North, and, in a dry year, may even reach the South
Coast. In 1908 some of these birds reached Colac, in Southern
Victoria. They are favorite aviary birds, and thousands have
been exported.

In the true Parrot family, Australia is strongly represented by
many beautiful birds. The first is the Barraband Parrakeet of
Gould, and the Green Leek of some ornithologists. As the name
Green Leek is practically in universal use for the Musk Lorikeet
(Green Keet) of the ornithologist, it seems desirable to sink an
inappropriate name into a synonym, and use the earlier name,
Superb Parrot, for it is a beautiful bird. Sad to say, it has
become exceedingly rare, though Mr. A. W. Milligan informed
me, a few days ago, that he saw six fly into some pines at Black
Rock one day this month (January, 1911).

The Rock Pebble, or Smoker, of the country dweller, formally
called the Black-tailed Parrot, is a fine bird. His tail, however,
is not really black, but is strongly iridescent. He nested in numbers,
at the beginning of the nineties, in the dead box-trees in
Lake Corrong. After an early tea, we frequently went over to
the lake and watched the birds feeding their young. No longer
do they inhabit that district, which has been completely cleared
and placed under cultivation.

The big King Parrot is a "showy, noble species," and is still
common in parts, especially the moist forest districts.

The members of the next group form a sub-family—the Broad-tails—confined
to Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the
Pacific Islands. Judging by their names, they must be amongst
the most beautiful of birds. The best known is the common
Rosella, often quoted in European books as one of the most beautiful
of birds. Its scientific name is eximius, which means excellent.
Indeed, the scientific names of Australian parrots give
a good indication of their place amongst the glories of the bird
world. The cousin of the Rosella—the large blue-winged and
blue-cheeked Crimson Parrot—is well named elegans; a grass
parrot is also elegans, then follow splendidus, splendida, and
pulchella, while that great ornithologist, Gould, has conferred
the honor of pulcherrimus on another Australian parrot.
These names, given by scientists, will show Australians in what
high esteem these birds, so common with us, are held by observers
from other lands.

The Crimson Parrot, previously mentioned, is, I think, becoming

common, for I have lately seen it flying about in towns,
notably in the Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, the Zoological Gardens,
Melbourne, and the school yard at Wangaratta.

The Yellow Parrakeet, with its blue cheeks, is a "harmony in
blue and canary yellow, and is an exceedingly lovely bird." It
is unfortunately rare.

The next bird is one of our well-known cage pets—the beautiful
Ringneck—the Mallee Parrot. It flies ahead of one along
the half-chain strip of scrub left on mallee roads, and is a feature
of interest.

The next group contains some inland parrots. The "Bulloak,"
or "Blue Bonnet," is a beautiful bird, and is common on
inland plains. It has a brownish-olive back and a gray
chest. The bright, blue cheeks, forehead, and shoulder,
red abdomen, and light yellow base to tail present a striking appearance.
Its vernacular name—Yellow-vented Parrakeet—has
now been altered to Blue Bonnet Parrot.

The Many-colored Parrot, with its large yellow shoulder
patch, is a glory. It is, indeed, difficult to imagine a more beautiful
bird as it flies about in the bright Mallee sunshine. The
Red-backed Parrot is the common "Grass Parrot" of country
dwellers. Large flocks of these birds are to be seen on the
inland plains. The female is much plainer than her gaudy mate.
This is unusual amongst parrots; for, as the work of sitting on
the eggs is done in a hollow tree under good shelter, there is
apparently no reason why the female should be plainer than
the male, and in most parrots she is equally pretty.

The brownish female offers a strong contrast to her more
brightly coloured mate, which is immediately distinguished by
the large red patch on the back. (The Many-colored Parrot
has a much smaller red patch on the back, near the base of the
tail.)

The seven small Grass-Parrots (Neophemas) are amongst the
most beautiful of parrots. These birds have become so rare that
the South Australian Government has wisely placed them on the
totally-protected list. Bird trappers formerly exported numbers
to Europe each year. These rare Parrots are said to be worth
about £7 each as cage birds.

We found the rare Rock Parrot nesting in the edges and hollows
of a tiny travertine-limestone island (Goat Island) in an inlet at
the eastern end of the Great Australian Bight. The eggs were
laid on the bare earth, often within two or three feet of high-tide
mark. The whole island was less than an acre in extent,
and at no point was ten feet above high-tide level. Many similar
islands on the Australian coast have not yet been explored
ornithologically, so we do not know what matters of interest are
awaiting us.

The next bird, the Swift-flying Lorikeet, is a honey feeder, like
the first four Parrots (Lorikeets) mentioned. It is often found
with them, and was common all the winter, and is common now
in a clump of flowering gums outside the Melbourne Cricket

Ground. It has given scientists much trouble as to its correct
name and position. It can be distinguished from the "Green
Keets" by having scarlet under the wings.

The beautiful and affectionate little Budgerigar (Warbling
Grass Parrot), or Love Bird, has many names. It is migratory,
and sometimes appears in thousands, though it may not be seen
again for years. It is a favorite cage bird, and breeds as
freely as caged canaries, so it is well-known in Europe.

The last two Parrots are ground birds, which never perch or
climb. It was feared that the Ground Parrot was extinct,
but it is seen occasionally in the National Park at Wilson's Promontory.
The Night Parrot is better called the Western Ground
Parrot. It is found amongst the Spinifex (Triodia) scrub of the
interior.

Though Parrots are essentially "climbers," having the suitable
arrangement of two toes in front and two behind, it is interesting
to learn of these two Australian Parrots which cannot

perch or climb. The Parrot's foot is of interest, further, in so
far as it is used as a hand, and the food is held in it while being
eaten. The powerful bill not only serves to reduce its food to
powder, but also assists in climbing. It is sometimes amusing
to note the "absurd caution," and great deliberation with which
a parrot climbs down in his cage to pick up some dainty.

Possessing no less than 76 kinds of Parrots and Cockatoos, Australians
should be alive to their privileges as contrasted with
the dwellers of northern lands, where Parrots do not live. They
should insist on the proper protection of these beautiful and wonderful
birds.

Australia is well represented in Order XVIII.—Picarian Birds.
The Tawny Frogmouth is one of "the most peculiar," and is the
"ugliest of birds." On account of its wide mouth, it is called the
Frogmouth, and on account of the confusion connecting it with
the Boobook Owl, which calls "Mopoke," this bird is also called
the "Mopoke" (see p. 85). It so closely mimics a broken branch
during the day that it is seldom seen, though it is fairly common.

Gould bears eloquent testimony to the value of Australian birds

in general, and the Podargus in particular, when he says: "In
no other country is there a greater proportion of insectivorous
birds, and certainly none in which nocturnal species such as the
Podargi are more numerous."

The Australian Roller (Dollar-Bird) has the family beauty, and
has a white circular patch on each wing, which shows clearly
when the wing is expanded during flight. At the Tallangatta
excursion a pair was working even after dusk near the schoolground.
Flying from the topmost dead branch, one bird suddenly
closed its wings, and cut queer antics in the air. After
flying a considerable distance, it returned to its former perch, and
the mate set off. On the return of the mate the first set off
again, and so on. With their disagreeable, rough "treek treek,"
and peculiar antics, they are conspicuous birds. It is our one
representative of a family most strongly developed in Africa.

While Kingfishers are cosmopolitan (world-wide in distribution),
yet the Australian region contains far more of these beautiful
birds than any other region. They are famous in legend
and story, and we owe to them the expression, "halcyon days" (Gr.
alkuon, a Kingfisher).

The great terrestrial Kingfishers, of which Australia has three
species—the fourth being confined to New Guinea—are amongst
the avine curiosities of Australia. Few birds are more famous
than the Laughing Kingfisher (Jackass), first, on account of his
gigantic size—hence his specific name, gigas—and, secondly,
because of his laugh, which brightens many a gloomy, misty day
in lonely country districts. Homesick travellers from foreign
lands could only hear evil spirits laughing at their trials and
loneliness, but, just as mountains, once thought ugly, are now considered
beautiful, so other thoughts are now associated with the
laugh of our remarkable Australian Kingfisher.

True to the law of representatives, Australia presents us with
a beautiful representative of the Old World family of Bee-eaters.

A writer has well said that there are "few so beautiful, and none
so graceful." Its scientific name, ornatus, shows that our bird
stands well amongst its fellows. One kind occasionally visits
England (about thirty records in the last hundred years).

In the same order come the Goatsuckers, or Nightjars, wide-mouthed,
swift-flying, insectivorous birds, which have an almost
cosmopolitan range, being absent only from New Zealand and
the Polynesian Islands. These Owl-like birds have very long
wings, thus indicating their rapid flight. They are very valuable
insect destroyers, though they are sometimes called "Night

Hawks," and are shot by people who foolishly shoot hawks.
Many destructive insects fly only at night, and these night-flying
birds are a necessity to maintain the balance of Nature.

Swifts are cosmopolitan birds. One Swiftlet is world-famous
on account of its saliva-built nest, which is the edible swallows'
nest we used to read about. This bird occasionally visits
Queensland. Two of the Australian birds breed in Japan.
They are essentially creatures of the air; their long, pointed
wings, shown much longer than the tail, indicate great speed.
Gould said that a Swift might be hawking for insects over Victoria
one hour, and over Tasmania the next hour; that is, it
can cross Bass Strait in an hour. The spines at the end of the
short tail feathers are thought to assist as a prop when the bird
settles on a wall or a cliff face. In some Swifts the four toes
point forward; this helps also in cliff clinging. Though so common

in the upper air, Swifts have not, in Victoria, been recorded
as having been seen to alight.

Most birds have hollow bones which are filled with air. It
was claimed by those who like to find a use for everything that
this was an obvious adaptation for purposes of flight, but when
one reflects that, in some of the Ostrich and Emu group, the
members of which never fly, the bones are strongly "pneumatic,"
while in Terns and Swifts, and some other flying birds, the bones
are solid, one must hesitate before generalizing even about such
an apparently obvious matter. Swifts are in no way related to
Swallows, but are close to Humming Birds, which are born with
a wide, Swift-like mouth.