Part 8 (1/2)
The swamp pheasant, or pheasant coucal (CENTROPUS PHASIanus) is also an early bird, and a bird of varied linguistic capabilities Folks are apt to associate with hile of crealooc!” An intie of his conversational powers leads one to conclude that there are few birds more widely accomplished in that direction He does use the fluid phrase mentioned, but his notes and those of his consort cover quite a range of exclamations and calls Just as I write a pair appeal for a just recognition of their accomplishments That which I assume to be the lord and master utters a loud resonant ”Toom! toom! toom! toom”
a smooth trombonic sound, ”hollow to the reverberate hills,” which his consort ansith a series of ”Tuher but still harmonious key, and in accelerated tempo This, I fancy, is the lover's serenade, and the soft assenting answer; al phrase of the duet ”Sole or responsive to each other's note,” the birdsthe day, especially in the pri expression Free and joyous as a rule, occasionally they see and after a bush fire the birds give to the notes a mournful cadence like the memories of joy that are past, a la which last year's dome-shaped nests were hidden The swamp pheasant also utters a contented, self-cooo!” of a happy infant, and occasionally a succession of grating, discordant,sounds, ”Tcharn! tcharn! tcharn!” The chuckleover the detection and assimilation of some favourite dainty, and the harsh notes a deer and hostility The more familiar and more frequent note is the ”Toom,” repeated about fourteen or sixteen times, and the thinner, softer response
The bird reseht, clu, he frequently loses his equilibriu tail as a counter-balance, as he juain elevation, whence to swoop and flop across the intervening space to the next When coht is slow and laboured in the extrelossy black, brown and reddish chestnut One writer describes the bird as half hawk, half pheasant, another as a non-parasitic cuckoo; another ”really a cuckoo”; another a swa to attempt to dispute any of these descriptions, I may say that the bird is a decided character and possesses the char that he will perch on the gatepost as one enters, assu a fierce and resentful aspect, and he will play ”hawk”
to the startled fowls He eats the eggs of other birds and kills chicks; but his murderous instincts are rarely exhibited, and then only, perhaps, when his passions are aroused He does not (as far as oes) kill for food, but ives him at certain times and seasons a fiery, jealous disposition, and a truculent determination to protect his family
”GO-BIDGER-ROO!”
As the sun shi+nes over the range, the plaintive cooing of the little blue dove, such as picked the rice grains fro the scented wattles on the flat, the gentlest and meekest of all the converse of the birds The nervous yet fluty tones are as an emphatic a contrast to the vehement interjections and commands of the varied honey-cater (PTILOTIS VERSICOLOR)--now at the first outburst--as is the swiftly foreshortening profile of the range to the glare in which all the foreground quivers
Once aroused, the varied honey-eater is wide awake His restlessness is equalled only by his iinal title, ”Go-bidger-roo!” ”Put on your boots!”
”Which--which-which hich hich way you go!” ”Get your whip!” ”Get your whip!” ”You go!” ”You go!” ”None of your cheek!” ”None of your cheek!” ”Here-here!” And darts out with a fluster fro the hibiscus bushes on the beach away up to the top of the melaleuca tree; pauses to saee, and down to the scarlet blooms of the flame tree, across the pandanus pal bath and drink, shouting without ceasing his orders and observations He is alith us, though not always as noisy as in the prioing so in a red-hot hurry, and alwaysis passionate and impulsive, joyous almost to rowdyiso shrike is another perlossy black, with a -tailed, sharp of bill and ue, and if a hawk hovers over the bloodwoods he tells without hesitation of the evil presence He is the bully of the wilderness of leaves, bouncing birds vastly his superior in fighting weight and alertness of wing, and clattering his jurisdiction to everything that flies When the nest on the netherry brood, his industry is exhilarating Ordinarily he gets all the food he wants by merely a superficial inspection; but with a family to provide for, he is co locality Clinging to the bark of the bloodwood, with tail spread out fan-wise as additional support, he searches every interstice, and ever and anon flies to the Moreton Bay ash, and tears off the curling fragments of crisp bark which afford concealrubs and spiders
With the loose end of bark in his bill, tugging and fluttering, using his tail as a lever with the tree as a fulcru in unseeo assists the Moreton Bay ash in discarding worn-out epider-place on its o is a bird ofthe nesting season he is noisy and alert, not only the first to give warning of the presence of a falcon, but the boldest in chiveying from tree to tree this universal enemy
He is then particularly partial to an aerial acrobatic perfornificant of the joy of life and liberty and the delirious passion of thescream and a preliminary doard cast, he iht--almost vertically--up above the level of the tree-tops Then, after acos preternaturally extended over the back and flattened together into a single rigid fin, drops--a feathered black bolt fro-place, and with bowing head and jerking tail gloats over his splendid feat
Though denied fluency of utterance, the spangled drongo has no rival in the peculiar character of the notes and calls over which he has secure copyright The shrill stuttering shriek which accompanies his aerial acrobatic perforle as of cracked china, the high-pitched tirade of jarring abuse and scolding at the presence of an ene whistles when the young first venture from the nest--each and every sound, unique and totally unlike that of any other bird, indicates the oddity of this sportful member of the crow fa and entertaining of all the birds of the island is that commonly known as the weaver or friendly bird, otherwise the ist, the ”Tee-algon” of the blacks Throughout the coastal tract of North Queensland this bird is fairly familiar In these days it could not escape notice and co colonies every few h not per but littlethe few birds who have permanent homes In soroups of fro its thinner branches the tree may look wearied and afflicted, but it obtains direct benefit from the presence of the birds The nests, deftly built of tendrils and slender creepers and grass are do at the side, and so hidden and overhung as al from the north and until the middle of March, when they take their departure, they do not indulge in many leisure moments There are the old nests to renovate and new ones to build in accordance with the de population, and loads of fruits and seeds and berries to be conveyed fro calornis is a handsoreen sheen The live bird differs so greatly from the dull, stuffed specimen of the museum that one is tempted to endeavour to convey by similitude its wonderful radiance A soap bubble, black yet retaining all its changing lights and flashi+ng reflections, is the nearest approach to a just description, and then there are to specify the rich, red eyes, eyes gleae are brown-backed, and rey of breast, and would hardly be recognised as members of the colony, but for the shrill notes and restless activity and those flaems of wondrous radiance, and the eyes epitomise the life of the bird which is all fla about in a bloodwood, and with a unanih the forest, and shoot into the jungle, flashi+ng sun-glints Eager, alert, always under high pressure, the business of the o between the horound with noisy excla notes they swoop close overhead, wheeling into the wilderness of leaves with the rapidity of thought, and with such graceful precision that the sunlight flashes froht Work, hasty work, is a necessity, for their wastefulness is extreme, or, rather, do they not unconsciously perforents--industrious and trustworthy though unchartered carders for ain out of the jungle, each with a berry in its bill and each shrilly exulting, many a load is dropped by the way, andthe cla no means of self-transportation are thus borne far froetate in sweet unencuenerous dispersal, but none engage in it so systematically or so openly
Beneath the tree which is the head centre of the colony is a carpet of debris several inches thick Old and discarded nests, frag of coral-red s, hard berries, chillies, degenerated tomatoes, the harsh seed-vessels of the umbrella-tree, samples of every fruit and berry of attractive appearance, however hot and acrid, all go to foretable al and profuse as she may be, Nature is the rarest of econole, every plant of which owes its origin to the shi+ning calornis
Itbirds, syht, are shrill and strident When they feed--and they see food--their chatter is perpetual and varied in tone Occasionally aThen his flame-red eyes flash with ardour, his head is thrown back, a sparkling ruffle appears on his otherwise satiny sht canary-- is only for the ears of those who kno to overcome timidity and shyness Birds naturally so impetuous are restless and uneasy under observation One nored Then the delicious ster's costers to imitate and excel, are all part of a quaint entertainment
THE NESTFUL TREE
All the forest brood do not plot hter Some live in strict ae of by the shi+ning calornis, a white-headed, rufous-backed sea-eagle nests, and the graceful, fierce-looking pair co any special comment Of course it would be impossible to detect any certain note of re on so or other in acidulous tones
Another occupant of this nestful tree is the sulphur-crested cockatoo, whose eggs are laid deep down in a holloo or three hundred of the shi+ning colonists, a brood of sea-eagles, white-headed, snowy-breasted and red-backed, and a couple, perhaps, three, screeching white cockatoos, represent the annual output of this single tree, in addition, of course, to its own crop of sweet savoured flowers (on which birds, bees, beetles and butterflies, and flying-foxes feast) and seeds in thousands in cunning cups
”STATELY FACE AND MAGNANIMOUS MINDE”
How feeble and ludicrous are the voices of the fierce hawks and eagles
The white-headed sea-eagle's puking discordant twang, the feeble cheep of the grey falcon--the cry of a sick and scared chicken--the harsh protest of the osprey, are sounds distinctive but frail, conveying no notion whatever of the demeanour and characteristics of the birds
Now the white-headed sea-eagle, with its sharp incurved beak, terrible talons, and ars, is a friend to all the little birds He has the ”stately face and nanimous minde” that old writers ont to ascribe to the Basilisk, the King of Serpents They know and respect, almost venerate hiry scolding and feeble assaults, as it does the cruel falcon and the daring goshawk Domestic fowls learn of his ways, and are wise in their fearlessness of him But I was not well assured of the reasons for the trustfulness and ad felloho spends , until direct and conclusive evidence was forthcoh weather, and the blue bay had becole found fishi+ng poor and unreuish in theof the fish just below the house is a small area of partly cleared flat, and therethe brave fellow roa about with more than usual interest in the affairs of dry land At this tireen snakes are fairly plentiful Hars, and the eagle had abandoned his patrol of the sad-hued water to take toll of the snakes After a graceful swoop down to the tips of a loing bush, he alighted on the dead branch of a bloodwood 150 yards or so away, and, with the help of a telescope, his occupation was revealed--he was greedily tearing to pieces a wriggling snake, gulping it in three-quarter-yard lengths Here was the reason for the trustfulness and respect of the little birds The eagle was destroying the chief bugbear of their existence--the sneaking greeny-yellowy s, whose colour and form so harmonises with leaves and thin branches that he constantly evades the sharpest-eyed of them all, and squeezes out their lives and ss the 50 and even 100 yards away, and once seen--well, one ene his beak on the branch of the tree on which he rested, and setting his breast pluht shake a cruhts and sat ht jerk of the neck indicated a successful observation, and he soared out, wheeled like a flash, and half turning on his side, hustled down in the foliage of a tall wattle and back again to his perch Another snake was cru, twirling pieces The telescope gave unique advantage during this entertainedies of Nature, or rather the lawful execution of a designing and crafty criminal Within ten minutes the performance was repeated for the third time, and then either the supply of snakes ran out or the bird was satisfied He shrewdly glanced this way and that, craning and twisting his neck, and see to adjust the lenses of his eyes for near and distant observation Nothe leaves seemed to escape him
Two yards and a half or perhaps three yards of live snakes constituted a repast At any rate, after twenty minutes' passive watchfulness, he sailed up over the trees and away in the direction of his ho calornis