An Australian Bird Book Part 32

In America the Audubon Society has done splendid work by disseminating knowledge about American birds, and arousing public interest in the value of birds. There, also, thorough scientific investigation has been made of the value of insect-eating and seed-eating birds. It has been stated, as the result of full research, that one wild pigeon, in whose crop over 7000 weed seeds were found, was as efficacious in destroying weeds as two farm laborers.

It is to be noted that no less an agricultural authority than Professor Gilruth, of the Veterinary School, Melbourne University, has given it as his deliberate opinion that the Australian farmer would find life impossible without the aid of the detested Sparrow as a weed destroyer. This is the judgment of a man whose opinion is worthy of serious consideration.

It is open to serious doubt if it pays commercially to kill indiscriminately any kind of bird found on this continent. It may, of course, happen that one individual bird has learnt where to get an easy food supply at the expense of a farmer or orchardist. Such a bird could be kept away. To kill birds at all times, because of the damage done by a few at a particular time, is foolish.

On the lines of the American Audubon Society, the Gould League of Bird Lovers has recently been established. Just as Audubon was the great father of American ornithology, so "John Gould, the bird man," was the father of Australian ornithology. Hence his name has been a.s.sociated with this movement to save our birds. The movement is progressing by leaps and bounds.

The Victorian branch has a very large body of members, about 40,000 certificates having already been issued to adults and children.

Tasmania has a branch in full operation. In South Australia bird clubs are doing excellent work, especially amongst the young people, and Queensland and New South Wales bird-lovers have taken active steps to develop the movement in their States. A Bird Day, by order of the Minister of Education, Hon. A. A. Billson, and the Director, Mr.

F. Tate, was observed in Victorian schools in 1909 and 1910, with gratifying results. Bird-nesting, for the collection of eggs, has practically wholly disappeared from our schools, while at most country schools native birds can be seen nesting on the school grounds, the children keeping observation notes of nesting and feeding habits of the birds as part of their work in Nature-study. What study is of greater economic importance to this wealthy, though occasionally insect-troubled, land?

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[Ill.u.s.tration: [237]]

ORDER XX.--MENURIFORMES, LYRE-BIRDS.

F. 104. MENURIDAE (3), LYRE-BIRDS, 3 sp. A. (South-Eastern A.).

3 3

=237 Victoria Lyre-Bird=, Pheasant (e), _Menura victoriae_, V.

Stat. r. _dense scrubs_, m., 36; f., 27

Beautiful lyre tail; f., sooty-brown; all tail feathers fully webbed. Insects, centipedes, snails.

Order XXI.--Perching-Birds--contains 11,500 species, more than three-fifths of the world's 19,000 birds. As Perching-Birds (_Pa.s.seres_) are still undergoing evolution, connecting links still live, so that it is very difficult to divide the Perching Birds into well-defined families. Sharpe has divided them into sixty-one families, but, for several of these, no exact characters that exclude other birds can be a.s.signed, so that some of these, at least, are "not worthy of family rank." However, Sharpe's cla.s.sification represents the latest thought of scientists on this difficult matter, so it must be adopted here.

This large order of birds is divided into two sub-orders:--

1. Songless Perching-Birds, made up mainly of South American birds, though two families are included that are represented in the Australian region--_viz._, Pittas (_Pittidae_) and New Zealand Wrens (_Xenicidae_).

2. Song-Birds.

Birds of the second division are again divided into two:--A.: Abnormal Song-Birds. B.: Normal Song-Birds.

The first group, Abnormal Song-Birds, comprises only the two remarkable Scrub-Birds (_Atrichornithidae_) of Australia. One of these inhabits West Australian scrubs only, while the other inhabits East Australian (Richmond River) scrubs only.

The breast bone and the muscles of the voice apparatus are unusual.

These birds are about the size of a thrush, and form "one of the most curious ornithological types of the many furnished by that country"

(Australia).

So far, no female bird has been examined, and little is known about these remarkable, noisy, scrub-haunting birds.

The remaining forty-eight "families" of birds belong to the Normal Song-Birds. It is interesting to note that Australia contains representatives of twenty-nine families of Song-Birds. Representatives of but nineteen families have been recorded from Britain. The Indian Empire, including Burmah and Ceylon, contains representatives of twenty-two families, North America, also, of twenty-two families, while in South America twenty-three families are represented in this highest division of birds.

Again, while only 89 Song-Birds have been recorded as permanent residents of, or regular visitors to, Britain, almost 500 species of Song-Birds have, so far, been recorded from Australia and Tasmania.

Of these, 157 have been recorded from Victoria, and are ill.u.s.trated in this volume. And yet, we are told, this is a land of songless birds.

Swallows have always attracted much notice, perhaps, because of their airy play when enjoying themselves after their long migration flight.

It is very difficult to realize that Cuvier and most scientists of one hundred years ago believed that Swallows hibernated by burying themselves in the mud in the bottom of lakes and pools. It is interesting to note, in Gilbert White's _Natural History of Selborne_, the growing doubt concerning this belief; but, as it was supported by apparently good authority, he is cautious. Fuller observation shows that there are well-marked lines of migration, so that the European Swallow migrates sometimes even as far as South Africa, and the Swallows of North Asia are said to migrate even to Australia. However, in our winterless clime, migration is not complete, and this year (1910) there was probably little migration of Swallows. As Swallows are such rapid fliers, and spend much of their time on the wing, it is not a matter of surprise to find that they have spread the world over, except to New Zealand, though Tree Swallows are said to reach even that distant land occasionally.

The Australian members of the Swallow family present very different nesting habits. While the Welcome Swallow builds the well-known cup-like mud nest, the rare White-backed Swallow drills a two-inch hole into a bank for two or three feet, and there builds its nest. The Tree Martin (Swallow), on the other hand, makes no nest, but lays its eggs on leaves placed on the rotten wood in the hollow of a tree. The Fairy Martin builds a long, bottle-shaped mud flask, under a bridge, or a ledge, and so is sometimes called the Bottle or Retort Swallow.

Wood-Swallows and Swifts do not belong to the Swallow family.

The Flycatcher family is a large one, nearly 700 species being accepted by Dr. Sharpe. More than half of these are restricted to the Australian region.

The Brown Flycatcher is almost as common as the Willie Wagtail (Black and White Fantail). The white feather on each side of the tail is a valuable guide, though the Groundlark also has this. So often does it sit on fence posts looking at the pa.s.ser-by that it has been called the "Post-Sitter." Its Sydney name, Jacky Winter, is less formal than Brown Flycatcher--a name which is already in use for another bird.

The Robin Redbreast of Britain is regarded with affection by all English children. That feeling has been transferred to the externally slightly similar "Robin Redb.r.e.a.s.t.s" of this country, though they are not at all related to the British Robins. Redbreast is really the name of the English bird, and Robin is perhaps a term of endearment added to the name Redbreast. While the British bird has a rufous breast, the Australian birds have a scarlet breast, and are much handsomer birds.

The British Robin is now placed in the Thrush family.

Once given to members of this family, the name Robin has been adopted for related birds that have no red--_e.g._, the black and white Hooded Robin, and the Tasmanian Dusky Robin. The Shrike Robins belong to the Shrike family, so they need not be mentioned here. The Scrub Robin of the inland dry scrubs belongs to the same family as the Coachwhip Bird and the Babbler.

The Fantails and some, at least, of the Flycatchers proper are known to all. Who does not know and admire the plucky, though fussy Black and White Fantail (Willie Wagtail), as it drives a cat or a dog away from the vicinity of its nest, or as it waits impatiently about the mouth of a grazing cow or horse, or as it expresses its opinion of itself in the melodious "sweet, pretty creature," heard even late on moonlight nights? The friendly White-shafted Fantail is almost as well known, as it flits about a camp or catches flies near some water-course.

At the Summer School, a Fantail spent some time each day in the dining-tent. The beautiful Rufous Fantail is just as tame, but is not quite so common. The nests of the White-shafted and Rufous Fantails are things of beauty. The long wine-gla.s.s stem is said by some to serve to drain the water away down from the nest, or as a means of carrying the eye down from the nest itself, so that it is seldom seen, or as a balance, so that the nest is not tilted too far in windy weather.

The Scissors Grinder, or Restless Flycatcher, is very much like a Black and White Fantail, but the throat is white, while that of the Fantail is black. The Grinder is often mentioned in popular books on bird-life, on account of its peculiar scissors-grinding note uttered while hovering in search of insects.

(continued below)

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ORDER XXI.--Pa.s.sERIFORMES, PERCHING BIRDS.

F. 105. _Pteroptochidae_, Tapaculos, Tilt-birds, 31 sp. Nl.

F. 106. _Conophagidae_, Antwrens, 16 sp. Nl.

F. 107. _Formicariidae_, Ant-thrushes, 348 sp. Nl.

F. 108. _Dendrocolaptidae_, Wood-hewers, Spinetails, 405 sp.

Nl.

F. 109. _Tyrannidae_, Tyrant-birds, American Flycatchers, Kingbird, Phoebe, 560 sp.--41(9)Nc., 551(519)Nl.

F. 110. _Oxyrhamphidae_, 3 sp. Nl.

F. 111. _Pipridae_, Mannikins, 84 sp. Nl.