55- 



nMsts axd eggs of aVstrauan birds. 



Amongst the most chccx-ful of forest sounds at evening are this 

 birds notfs when heard among lofty trees up some gully. Tlieu 

 again at early dawn, soon after the eliirping notes of the Yellow Robin 

 and sometimes before the melodious Magpie, the voices of llie Jackasses 

 herald the coming day. On two mornings I timed the Jackass's first 

 song at 4.20, or just one hour before sunrise. Again at evening it is 

 delightful to listen to these birds in the bush, when they are particu- 

 larly noisy. But all settle down quietly as the last light of day fades 

 out. It has been stat<;d that the female only voices tiie laughter-like 

 notes, while the male accompanies her with the gi-owling noise. Is it 

 a fact? 



Until recent years the Great Biown Kingfisher did not appear to 

 exist in Western Australia — I refer more particularly to the forests 

 of the south-west, which would appear equally as well adapted to the 

 jjcculiar habits of the bird as the eastern timljcr tracts are. However, 

 Mr. G. A. Keartland, of the Calvert expedition in 1896, states wliilst 

 camped at Mullawa he heard the well-known notes of these birds, and 

 observed a few of them always near the camps. They were also noted 

 between Fremantle and Perth. Perhaps these latter were some of the 

 birds captured in Victoria by Mr. James Cooper, and sent to Western 

 Australia by order of the Government, or perhaps the Jackasses had 

 followed the numerous other eastern " Jackasses " who had been 

 attracted to the glorious west by the wonderful gold thscoveries. The 

 Brown Kingfisher being the southern fonn of the genus DaceJo, I was 

 agrccablv siu-priscd. in 1885, to find the bird as far north as the Cai-d- 

 well Scnibs, Northeni Queensland. Since then. Mr. Dudley Le Souef 

 infonns me he noted the bird on the Bloomfield River, still fmtlier 

 north. It has been observed in the interior at Coopers Cieck. 



Tlie chief breeding months of the Brown Kingfisher are from Sep- 

 tember to the end of the year, during which period usually two broods 

 are reared. In Southern Queensland Mr. Lau observed that the first 

 clutdi was generally laid in September, and the second in Novembca-. 

 The nesting place is not lined in any way ; the eggs arc merely 

 deposited on the dust of the decompo.scd wood in the hollow, or. if in 

 termites' nests, on the bare lloor at the end of the tunnel. Old nests 

 are sometimes resorted to ; but if new quarters have to be found, both 

 male and female birds assist in excavating the hole. 



On October 31st (1893), Mr. George 11. Morton took three eggs 

 from the spout of a red-gum tree, five feet from the ground, near tlie 

 Murray River. On Novemlx^r •J7th. he fomid a young bird in llu' same 

 nest. When Mr. Morton removed the three eggs he may have left 

 one egg remaining, but the gi-eater probability is the fourth egg was 

 laid afterwards. However, on the 12th December the young had left 

 the nest. Tlicrcforc we may infer that from the lime the female de- 

 posits her eggs till the yoiuig (piit the nest is about si.\ weeks.* Aft4.'r 

 the yoimg leave the nest their parents ((Hilinin' to feed tlieiii for a 



• I po^ses- a pair cif live Jackasses that was taken (rtim u nest when the birds 

 were about a ni>inlh old. .\t the iijjc ol six weeks one eiideavmired In laii^h. 

 and both could laugh loudly and lustily before they were three muntlis old. 



