^'^looe''! Campbell, Some Victorian Winter Notes. 6l 



It is to the north-east then, and to the north-west, that I will 

 turn mostly for my bird notes. However, I might refer for a 

 moment or two to Gippsland. About Drouin the heavy timber 

 on the rich red soils is coming down fast, or at least the smaller 

 scrub is, and the giant " rung" trees are left, 8 or lo per acre, 

 standing dead and gaunt in the fields and pastures. In these 

 skeletons the introduced Starling by thousands of thousands is 

 increasing, but speaking generally the species will do far more 

 good than harm in a country where native caterpillars and other 

 herbage-eating pests also flourish. The White-backed Magpie is 

 also increasing in numbers about the clearings, but the Lyre-Bird 

 is now unknown where it stalked as lord but 25 years ago. In the 

 Crown lands flanking the settlements, among the big timber yet 

 untouched, a few native birds are still at home. The White- 

 throated Tree-creeper and Tits, principaWy A can f/n'.za J>/tsz7/a and 

 A. lineata, climb about the trees, and the Yellow Robin and 

 White-throated Thickhead keep to the denser scrub. Occasion- 

 ally the Crimson Parrakeet or the Gang Gang Cockatoo darts 

 through the timber, while the Grey Magpie makes the place re- 

 echo with its loud calls. Down about Moe, in the drained 

 swamp land, nothing but Starlings seem to exist, though some- 

 times a Black-and-White Fantail or a pair of Swallows comes 

 about the homes. 



But in the north-east, from Beechworth through Chiltern to 

 Rutherglen, bird calls come oft and varied. Even on a dense 

 misty morning the chirping and wrangling by the country road- 

 side betray the presence of at least three species of Honey- 

 eaters together in some flowering gum tree. It is about Chiltern 

 especially that birds are plentiful. Running east and west is a 

 long, low Silurian ridge, from which the gold in the adjacent rich 

 alluvial mines was worn. The ridge is coated with a thick layer 

 of quartz gravel, the broken up fragments of ancient reef, and 

 looks spotlessly white after recent rains. The scrub thereon is 

 mostly second-growth ironbark, but here and there among it is 

 an ancient '"senator," a solitary ironbark, the last of that old race 

 that was wiped out to supply timber and fuel to the early gold- 

 digging days. The ironbark flowers freely, even young saplings 

 bearing trusses of heavy bloom, and on this many species of 

 Honey-eaters and Lorikeets are found. Those identified were 

 Fuscous and Yellow-tufted Honey-eaters in numbers. Black- 

 chinned and Brown-headed, Wattle-Bird and Spinebill. The 

 mistletoe is common, and also the Mistletoe-Bird. Some trees 

 had positively more mistletoe growth than leaves of their own. 



Some very pretty phases of a bird's existence can be observed 

 in winter, when the adults, usually in pairs, remain in each 

 other's company continuously. They traverse their domain, 

 prospecting for food, with that happy indifference born of right 

 livine and a eood conscience. Babblers, both Poiiiatorhinus 



