THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 303 



and preys on reptiles chiefly, snakes, lizards, and so fortb, 

 as well as insects of a larger growth, the gigantic centipede, 

 that makes dead timber a horror in the bush, centipedes 

 and coleoptera of various kinds, as m'cU as cicadas that 

 murder sleep, and mantides that mock the praying friar, for 

 they only pray to prey on the unwary creatures smaller 

 than themselves that venture within their reach. 



A useful bird is the dacelo, and protected by law — at 

 least, if it is not it ought to be, in consequence of the 

 number of deadly reptiles it destroys. The writer once 

 found a lizard in the crop of a dacelo that was as long as 

 the bird itself, and it will kill and swallow a snake twice at 

 least its own length, and repeat the operation in an hour. 



THE STRUTHIDEA. 



Family — Cratenxpodidce. 



Genus — StnitJiidea. S. cinerea. Grey Struthidea. 



These birds are sometimes spoken of as oven-birds, but 

 are quite different from the members of the Dejidt'ocolaptidce 

 famil}^ of which the Red Oven-Bird {Furnariics riifiis) is 

 a typical example ; but as it is found in South America 

 (Buenos Ayres), it is outside the scope of the present work. 



The Grey Struthidea, however, is a native of Australia, 

 and is sufficiently (or was) plentiful in the park-like 

 country round Lake Burrumbeet in the colony of Victoria, 

 where it affixes its curious oven-like nest to the horizontal 

 branches of the dwarf gum-trees or the banksias that, with 

 various mimosas, form the sylva of that picturesque region. 



They are not very attractive-looking birds, for the colour, 

 as the name indicates, is not a brilliant one, and they have 

 no voice to speak of — at least, not a musical one — to com- 



