176 Henry, Paradise Duck at Resolution Island, N .Z. [mt^^Aprii 



told the family and took them to it, for it was the only patch in 

 the harbour at the time — I could tell that by the Gulls. 



9th December. — It is a regular thing now for the drake to go 

 away in the mornings looking for food, and if he finds any to 

 take out the family and bring them home at night, and then 

 come up asking for wheat for himself The little ones will eat 

 wheat since they were 14 days old, but it is evident that they 

 would prefer the insect food. One of them disappeared a few 

 days ago in my absence, and there are only three now. The 

 mother was also hurt, as if hit in the back, and I am almost sure 

 it was a Sparrow- Hawk. 



Now when the drake is absent she makes the little ones lie 

 among the stones where they cannot be seen, and lies herself on 

 the brown seaweed that suits her colour. Perhaps it was then 

 the Hawk came. The Skua Gulls are also about, and just as 

 bold as Hawks, I saw one of them trying for a duckling, but 

 the drake blocked him. They have lots of enemies, and will 

 require all the little arts and plans to rear the young ones. The 

 little fellows are growing rapidly, and can run like rabbits now 

 and dive like Shags, so that they have a fair chance of surviving. 

 The drake has no end of courage, and would go for anything 

 that went near his young ones, even the dog. Think of the time 

 it takes to rear these Ducks, and of all the little arts and plans 

 for their protection — the accumulated experience of thousands 

 of years. Yet we destroy them for amusement ! 



Birds of Ararat District. 

 By G. F. Hill, Wellington, N.Z. 



Part I. 



During a residence of nearly ten years in the Pyrenees, a range 

 of hills near Ararat, in the north-west province of Victoria, I 

 had many and excellent opportunities of observing the bird life 

 of that region. It must be remembered that the Pyrenees are 

 the extreme western flank of the gold-bearing slate rocks of 

 Victoria, and so they come to partake, in the nature of their avi- 

 fauna, of the character of the central and southern regions, 

 seventeen species of Passerine birds not being found any further 

 to the north-west. The Grampians, however, unique sandstone 

 ranges, standing an easy day's journey to the westward, probably 

 possess the same quota of bird life.* But the Mallee, which 

 occupies the north-western horizon in a long, unbroken line, has 

 little in common with either — only one species of bird peculiar 

 to its great domain (namely, the Chestnut-backed Ground-Bird) 



* See Ellin, vol. vi., p. ^i. 



