SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 27 



indeed, he will see them in suitable hunting grounds in many districts— such 

 as, for instance, the Liverpool Plains. The magpie is one of the most 

 important of our birds as an insect hunter and destroyer, hunting over 

 paddocks (where it turns over cowdung and sticks to get at the hidden 

 insects) and equally busy in the forests and farms. It is also a valuable 

 ally in destroying mice. During the mice plague in 1917-18 large 

 numbers of these bii'ds congregated in the vicinity of the wheat stacks 

 in the Riverina. At Lockhart I counted over a hundred, and when I 

 turned over bags and a swarm of sheltering mice scattered over the 

 yards the magpies often flew along and snapped up a mouse as he was 

 running. At night the magpie rests in the timber, and pours forth at day- 

 break its morning hymn " all's well with the world." There are few birds 

 in the world that can send forth such a rich carol as a family of magpies on 

 a summmer morning in the Australian forests, or at night a pleasanter 

 even-song. 



The semi-domesticated magpie that comes round the homestead garden, 

 often contracts bad habits ; it pulls up plants and damages fruit^, and some- 

 times, when food is short, it goes into the cultivation paddock and pulls up the 

 green shoots peeping through the soil to eat the soft grain at the base. In 

 such cases these rogue magpies have to be driven away and — if too persistent, 

 - — shot. 



The magpie constructs an open round bowl-shaped nest composed of sticks 

 bark, and twigs, lined inside with finer material, such as hair and feathers. 

 It is generally placed w^ell out in the fork of a stout branch of a gum tree. 

 The clutch of eggs varies from three to live in number ; the eggs are usually 

 of a blue or greenish tint, thickly mottled or marbled with pink or brownish- 

 red, but they are remarkable for their many changes in ground colour and 

 markings — very often in the same nest. 



There are no more interesting birds for pets than a pair of young magpies 

 and none more easily fed and reared when plenty of fresh meat is available. 

 When domesticated, they will soon learn to follow one round, arid with their 

 bright eyes on the watch they will snap up every grub or earthworm turned 

 up in the garden soil. In the early morning it is interesting to watch one of 

 these birds walking along the walls and picking off all stray flies and moths 

 before the sun has roused them from their semi-torpid condition. During 

 a, visit to the New Hebrides, I was interested in noting how easy it 

 is to alter the balance of power in insect or bird life by the introduction 

 of a bird useful in its native country, into a new land under altered 

 conditions of life. At Ringdove Bay in the New Hebrides the planters had 

 imported some magpies from Sydney which roamed about the compound and 

 lived almost exclusively upon the small insect-eating lizards so abundant in 

 the islands, and which live among the foliage of the scrub trees. In 

 destroying these lizards they were of course doing much more harm than good. 



