Vol.JI.n ^■E.^^^.Y, Birds of the Richmond District, N.Q. lOQ 



could never make up her mind as to whether they were Native-Hens or 

 domestic pullets. 



They disappear every year about June. 



Bald-Coot {Porphyria melajtonotus). — The handsome Bald-Coot, like so 

 many more of the semi-aquatic birds that may be found here throughout the 

 year, is not represented through the winter and spring by anything like the 

 number of individuals that are to be seen during the summer and autumn. 

 This is only natural, as their hunting-grounds, the shallow lagoons and 

 swamps, disappear so quickly once the wet season goes by ; but this is not a 

 very numerous species even in the summer. They nest here during January 

 and February among the bulrushes ; they appear to commence a lot of nests 

 which are abandoned before completion. It is interesting to notice the 

 gangway of reeds they often construct, sometimes winding a considerable 

 distance, leading up to the nest, which may be placed a couple of feet above 

 the water. I was told of two broods, one in the down and the other half- 

 grown, being seen early in October, 1904. The chick has the frontal-plate 

 from the egg-shell. 



Coot {Fidica australis).—V>ui seldom seen, and then generally during the 

 wet season, though I have had them reported to me in June. Never very 

 numerous. I have seen as many as thirty on a swamp. 



Native Companion, or Crane {Antigone aiistralasiana).—K per- 

 manent resident here, generally to be seen congregated in small parties of 

 eight or ten, but at times as many as forty or fifty get together. During the 

 summer, which is their time of nesting, they will more often be seen in 

 pairs. 



My record of nests with eggs commences with 28th September, and 

 follows on two nests in October, one in December, January one, February 

 three, March two, and ends up with a nest and eggs on 4th April. 



They soar at times to a great height, to an altitude, I believe, of two 

 to three miles. Indeed, at such times they would be unnoticed were 

 attention not drawn to them by their trumpeting. To anyone who has not 

 already done so, I would advise, the first chance he gets, to examine the 

 arrangement of the trachea within this bird. It is most interesting and 

 curious. It is rather too much to go into the subject deeply here, but, put 

 shortly, the whole keel of the sternum is hollow, and largely extended up 

 between the coracoids ; the trachea enters this cavity at a spot just behind 

 where the hypoclidium should be, follows the line of the keel downwards, 

 bends back, forming the first loop, takes a sweep upwards, forms a second 

 loop within the inflated portion between the coracoids, and returning 

 downwards comes out again where it went in. The clavicles, too, are very 

 unusual in being solidly connected with the point of the keel of the 

 sternum, the one being apparently simply an extension of the other instead 

 of being disconnected or held to one another by cartilage only, as is the 

 almost universal rule, as carvers of poultry know from their experience with 

 the merrythought. 



Bustard {Eiipodotis aiistralis).—\l is sad to think that the inexorable 

 law of nature, the survival of the fittest, has doomed this fine Bustard to 

 extinction, but its conspicuous size and low rate of reproduction give no 

 hope for its future ; it is only a matter of time— time and arms of precision. 

 It is a pity, for, apart from any feeling of sentiment, the birds are most 

 useful, destroying large numbers of grasshoppers ; they are only half insec- 

 tivorous, as various forms of low-growing vegetation, particularly the bitter 

 fruit of a small wild melon, are eaten. The numbers to be seen here vary 

 according as the season is favourable to them or not. In November, 1903, 

 I saw a flock of 43 ; in February, 1905, I counted 100 in sight at the one 

 time, and I remember, some sixteen or seventeen years ago, I counted 300 



