Vou XVIII.-] 5^y^ Protection. ^I"^ 



I919 



will lie in its administration, and in this the police will have the 

 assistance of honorary rangers ; while this help will not be very 

 much, it will give station-owners power to enforce observation on 

 their own properties. 



QUEENSLAND NOTES. 



Birds and Cane Beetles. 



The cause of the birds continues to receive valuable support. 

 Here is what Dr. J. F. Illingworth, entomologist to the Queensland 

 Sugar Bureau, has to say, inter alia, in a report just to hand : — 

 " Soon after the first flight of the beetles this year, my attention 

 was attracted by a flock of fowls and Ibises under one of the large 

 rubber trees in the Mulgrave mill yard. They were all actively 

 feeding upon beetles, which were dropping out of the tree. Upon 

 closer observation I saw that there were a number of smaller birds 

 in the branches, and these, too, were eating the insects. Usually, 

 when one of the birds hopped on a twig and secured a beetle, 

 several others were dislodged, and fell to the ground, where they 

 were quickly gobbled. I have followed up this interesting line 

 of observation, with excellent results. Ordinarily, the birds are 

 very timid in this district, because of a lack of energetic protection, 

 and they scatter before one can get near enough to see what they 

 are eating. By approaching quietly, however, with the glasses 

 I have been able to observe most of our moderate-sized birds 

 feeding upon the beetles. It may be interesting to note a few 

 of these, such as the Magpie-Lark, " Yellow-belly," Leatherhead, 

 Butcher-Bird, Miner, Satin Bower-Bird, Blackbird, Laughing 

 Jackass, &c. The first two are by far the most numerous, and 

 have the advantage that they follow their prey to the ground if 

 they fail in their first attempt at securing it. Most of these birds 

 are too small to swallow the grey-backs at one mouthful, but 

 when one is near enough one can see that they beat the insect 

 to pieces on the larger branches before attempting to ' down ' it. 

 Then, too, the quantity eaten by a single bird is limited, but they 

 make up for this in numbers. Just after daylight there is a 

 constant stream of the birds through the feeding trees of the 

 beetles. As will be noted above, even the fruit-eating birds take 

 kindly to the beetles during their nesting season — a fact which 

 agrees with my experience in America, where most of the seed- 

 eating birds feed their young upon insect diet. 



Protection of the bird-life of a country is certainly worth 

 considering, for we cannot begin to estimate their value to man, 

 even those that we sometimes class as enemies, when they 

 occasionally eat our corn or kill our chickens. Undoubtedly birds 

 are the greatest factor in the control of insect pests. Theoretically, 

 almost any minute insect, with its rapid method of multiplication, 

 would overrun the earth, making it impossible for man or other 

 animals to exist if the offspring of the insect all survived and 

 reproduced. 



