Part 7 (2/2)

HERONS

Pluret HERODIAS TIMORIENSIS

White-fronted Heron NOTOPHOYX NOVAE-HOLLANDIAE

Reef Heron DEMIEGRETTA SACRA

Little Mangrove Bitterove Bittem DUPETOR GOULDI

POUCHERS

Little Cormorant PHALACROCORAX MELANOLEUCUS

Darter PTOLUS NOVAE-HOLLANDIAE

Masked Gannet SULA CYANOPS

Red-legged Gannet SULA PISCATOR

Brown Gannet (booby) SULA SULA (FIBER)

Lesser Frigate Bird FREGATA ARIEL Pelican PELICanus CONSPICILLATUS

DIVER

Black-throated Grebe PODICIPES NOVAE-HOLLANDIAE

DUCKS

Black Duck ANAS SUPERCILIOSA

Grey Teal NETTION (ANAS) GIBBERIFRONS

Why have we no residential parrot, though cockatoos are plentiful; no scrub turkey though the le; no coh other shrikes (the o; no wren, no finch, no lark? Scrub turkeys (TALLEGALLA LATHAMI),the coast, at certain seasons visiting the scrub which ins the opposite beach, but they are not found on these islands The blue ed lory, the black cockatoo (Leach's), and other well-known species, fleet and ventureso sea”

cannot be any check, certainly do not use the island for nesting as birds of ”innocent and quiet ed butterflies flit across the channel, occasionally in great numbers What law restrains virile birds fro the residents of swi birds, save the beach frequenters, is due to the lack of open fresh water, though there are indications of the past existence of at least one swa away of a sand ridge by the sea

How is it, that though we have echidna in three different colours--black, grey and straw--there is no typical uana (rather, h a fair variety of other reptiles, froh the CYCAS MEDIA is plentiful on the seaward slopes of the adjacentold-world plant has been discovered here and but one casual representative has been found of the graceful fan pal of Australia No doubt the seed whence the single fan paleon; but there is no bird-carrier for the CYCAD, and the set of the current is opposed to its transport by the sea

In birds and in roups are unrepresented

THE DAYBREAK FUGUE

Before there is any visible sign of the break of day, some keener and finer perception than oon bird, which in duty bound makes prompt proclamation Man trusts to ht; birds to a self-contained grace more sensitive if not so viciously exact The noisy pitta bustles along the edge of the jungle rousing all the sleepy heads with sharp interrogative whistles before there is the least paling of the Eastern sky He scents the sun as the ghost of Ha air His version of ”Sleepers, wake,” echoes in the silence in sharp, staccato notes Seldo the heat of the day, they are oft repeated at dusk and late in the evening Of all the birds of the day his voice is the last as well as the first, and froo-bah”

As the dawn hastens a subdued fugue of chirps and whistles, soft, continuous and quite distinct frolare is greeted, completes a circle of sounds

Wheresoever he stands the listener is in the centre of ripples of melody which blend with the silence alhts flee before the po eneral exclamation of pleasure on the recovery of the day fronition, an interchange of matutinal compliments Those who take part in it may be jealous rivals in a few minutes, but the first impulse of each new day is a universal paean, not loud and vaunting, but melloeet and unselfish

THE MEGAPODE

The cackle and call of the scrub fowl (MEGAPODIUS DUPERREYS) are nocturnal as well as sounds of the day, being repeated at intervals all through the night Rarely venturing out of the shades of the jungle, the eyesight of this bird is, no doubt, specially adjusted to darkness and subdued lights, and is thus enabled to detect and prey upon insects which during the day lurk under leaves and decayed wood, or bury themselves in the surface of the ever moist soil Astonishrubs or beetles, centipedes and worms, scorpions and spiders left to perpetuate their species, when the floor of the jungle is raked over with such assiduity by this powerful and active bird During the day the ives way to what may in charity be presumed to be a crow---an uncouth, discordant effort to ie of the civilised rooster In coapode has no ear for”cock-a-doodle-doo” all its life in the solitary corners and undergrowth, and to have not yet arrived within quavers of it It ”abhors thethe birds of the air of such an inveterate land lover, a bird which seldoeneral principles, while its practical exercise of rare domestic economy entitles it to special and complimentary notice Reference is apode in taking advantage of the heat caused by the fer before the astute Chinese practised the artificial incubation of hens' and ducks' eggs, these sage birds of ours hadof a mound, which may contain many cartloads of material, but each bird appears to have a particular area in which to deposit her eggs The chicks apparently earn their own living ied from the mound, and are so far independent ofdistances froorously and flying when frightened with reh but a few hours old I coacious bird, not only in the avoidance of the dis of those great etable matter and earth which perfored part of the island is a mound almost completely walled in by immense boulders In such a situation the birds could hardly have found it possible to accureat a quantity of debris The material was not available on the site, and as theto account for it all, until it was noticed that the junction of two boulders with an inclination towards each other formed a natural flume or shoot dohich most of the material of the mound had been sent As the rains and use flatten the apex fresh stuff is deposited with a trifling amount of labour, to afford an illustration of ”purposive conscious action”

Thein the face of laws to which ordinary fowls are obedient While s, she scandalously violates that which provides that the size of the egg shall be in proportion to the size of the bird

Thoughthat she lays equals nearly three of the fowl's Coiants aapode, are highly corown cassowary is 150 lb, and the egg weighs 1 lb 6 oz A good-conditioned5 1/4 oz; ordinary do of the cassowary represents 1 per cent of the weight of the bird, the doapode no less than 11 1/2 per cent of its weight

When these facts are considered, we realise why the hoest of Australian eggs, is carried so low as she bursts through the jungle; why the pair converse in such huapode exults so loudly so coarsely and in such shocking intervals, careless of the sentiments and of the sense of h the powers of the flight of this bird are feeble it inhabits islands 3 and 4 hbours The laboured way in which a startled bird flies across the narrow expanse ofjourney would never be undertaken voluntarily Noton the beach on thelow on the water from the direction of Dunk Island, 2 1/2heavily, and some little distance from land fell exhausted into the sea When it drifted ashore--a Godsend to the boys--it was found to be a apode--and the feat was camp talk None could credit that a ”kee-rowan” could fly so far

SWAMP PHEASANT