An Australian Bird Book Part 16

F. 45. _Rhinochetidae_, Kagu, 1 sp. A. (N. Cal.).

F. 46. _Mesoenatidae_, 1 sp. E. (Madagascar).

F. 47. _Eurypygidae_, Sun-bitterns, 2 sp. Nl.

F. 48. _Psophiidae_, Trumpeters, 7 sp. Nl.

F. 49. _Cariamidae_, Seriema, Saria, 2 sp. Nl.

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 gra.s.shoppers, it undoubtedly rendered as valuable service there as it does here. This is another reason that has been a.s.signed 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 appet.i.te for gra.s.shoppers and other insects. This bird is a valuable a.s.set to Australia, and yet thoughtless farmers used to shoot it. Mr. Le Souef 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 gra.s.shoppers. Think of it; 480,000,000 gra.s.shoppers 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 a.s.sisted 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 a.s.semble 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 gra.s.shoppers 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.

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ORDER XII.--ARDEIFORMES.

F. 50. IBIDIDAE (3), IBISES, 27 sp.--4(2)A., 6(2)O., 3(0)P., 10(8)E., 4(0)Nc., 11(7)Nl.

1 5

=112 Australian White Ibis= (Black-necked), Sickle-Bill, _Ibis molucca_, Mol., N.G., A. =vt. Sacred Ibis of Egypt.

Nom. flocks, r. _lagoons_ 30

White; head, upper-neck bare black; back of head and neck barred rose-pink; black bill arched; f., smaller. Insects.

1 1

=113 Straw-necked Ibis=, Dryweather (Letter) Bird, Farmer's Friend, _Carphibis spinicollis_, A. T.

Nom. flocks, c. _gra.s.sy_ 28

"This beautiful ibis;" head, fore-neck naked black; black bill arched; pointed, straw-colored plumes on neck; breast, upper greenish-purple barred black; abdomen, flanks, tail white; f., smaller. Insects.

1 3

=114 Glossy Ibis=, Black Curlew (e), _Plegadis falcinellus_, A., T., N.Z., almost cos. exc. S. Am., Arctic, and Pac. Is.

[~114 _Egatheus falcinellus._]

Nom. flocks, v.r. _swampy_ 25

Head, neck, breast, back, under rich reddish-chestnut; lower-back, tail dark bronze-green; winter; head, neck streaked white; f., sim. Insects, worms.

F. 51. PLATALEIDAE (2), SPOONBILLS, 6 sp.--2(2)A., 2(0)O., 2(0)P., 2(1)E., 1(0)Nc., 1(0)Nl.

1 4

=115 Black-billed Spoonbill= (Royal), _Platalea regia_, A., N.Z.

Nom. r. _marshy_ 29

White; bill, legs, feet black; f., sim. Sh.e.l.lfish, frogs.

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[Ill.u.s.tration: [128] [129] [131] [133] [134] [135] [136] [137] [139]]

=128= Cape Barren Goose =129= Maned Goose =131= Plumed Whistling Duck =133= Black Duck =134= Australian Teal =135= Gray Teal =136= Australian Shoveller =137= Pink-eared Duck =139= White-eyed Duck

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[Ill.u.s.tration: [152] [155] [157] [158] [165] [167] [170] [172] [173]]

=152= Allied Harrier =155= Australian Goshawk =157= Collared Sparrowhawk =158= Wedge-tailed Eagle =165= Black-shouldered Kite =167= Black-cheeked Falcon =170= Little Falcon =172= Brown Hawk =173= Nankeen Kestrel

[Page 60]

[Ill.u.s.tration: [116] [117] [118] [121] [122]]

1 1

=116 Yellow-billed Spoonbill=, _Platibis flavipes_, A.