An Australian Bird Book: A Pocket Book for Field UseLeach, John Albert
Science
An Australian Bird Book: A Pocket Book for Field Use
Leach, John Albert
Birds -- Australia
Amongst the glories of the bird world, the Superb-Warbler stands high.
His beautiful enamel-blue and black costume, and his cheery, fussy
song justify his name. He is generally accompanied by four or five
plain-colored mates, and is said to lose his beautiful coat of blue
each autumn, but the balance of evidence now seems to be with
Mr. Keartland and Dr. Horne, who claim that he gets the permanent
beautiful coat late in life (that is, when three or four years old),
and does not lose it afterwards, except for a few days at moulting
time. But, being so conspicuous, he soon falls a prey to one of his
numerous enemies, of whom the small boy with a pea-rifle is probably
the worst. I, too frequently, hear of these enemies of their country
being caught with three or four of these lovely little birds in their
possession. However, Bird Day in the schools did much good, and the
next generation of boy will probably have less of the savage in him.
The Emu-Wren, which has tail feathers like Emu feathers, is easily
recognized if seen. It is difficult to cause it to fly out of the
rushes round a swamp. The Bristle-Birds are Australian, and are fairly
common in some dense scrubs.
Grass-Wrens are not Wrens, but are placed in the Warbler family. They
are Central Australian birds. They seldom fly, but "progress like a
rubber ball" with great swiftness. They are of the light tawny color
that so well matches desert sands. It is very difficult to get a
second look at one, as it hides in the grass and scrub, and almost
refuses to be flushed. Sometimes it nearly allows itself to be walked
upon.
Fourteen of the 17 members of the Wood-Swallow family are confined
to the Australian region. The White-rumped Wood-Swallow extends from
Australia through the islands to the Andaman Islands; another kind
is found in India, Ceylon, and Burma. Some kinds are migratory. They
appear suddenly in great companies, build a flimsy, careless nest in
any spot high or low, and soon have the young on the wing. They are
the "Blue-Birds," "Summer-Birds," or "Martins" of our youth. Some of
these birds have the remarkable habit of hanging in a cluster similar
to a great swarm of bees. Like Honey-eaters, they take honey from the
flowering eucalypts. The street trees of Bendigo were alive with these
birds in May, 1909. The Sordid Wood-Swallow is partly migratory, and
lives in small companies. Most towns in Southern Australia have a
company of these birds in the neighborhood. One such company lives in
the Domain, near the entrance to the Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.
These tame woodland birds, admirable in their graceful wheeling and
floating flight, destroy numbers of destructive insects. Occasionally,
a company has discovered that a good food supply can easily be
obtained close to a beehive. Thus rarely they do a slight amount of
harm, but the balance is overwhelmingly in their favor.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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