SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



those that are not pi-otected in the first and second schedules. Therefore all 

 the birds and animals not black-listed are given complete or partial protection, 

 ■with a close season while breeding. Included in the Act is a description of all 

 the sanctuaries (where no one is allowed to shoot any kind of bird or animal) 

 in the State. A license fee of £5 is charged all persons who shoot game 

 for sale, and the number of game birds that the holder of a license is allowed 

 to shoot each day is regulated. Besides the members of the police force, 

 about 300 honorary rangers have been appointed and gazetted, including 

 stock inspectors, forest-rangers, officers of the Department of Agriculture, 

 and the Council of the Wild Life Preservation Society. 



Work of Protective Societies. 



Perhaps first in order of the educational agencies active in New South 

 Wales comes the Wild Life Preservation Society of Australia, which was 

 founded in 1909 to encourage the protection and preservation of the 

 Australian fauna and flora. Besides giving popular lectures in town and 

 country centres, and publishing reports, the members have taken a keen 

 interest in all legislation dealing with wild life and the protection of game 

 birds and animals. It was a committee of this society that drew up the 

 original draft of the latest New South Wales act. 



Under the new incorporation, the members of the Royal Zoological Society 

 are actively promoting the spread of knowledge of our birds and animals, and 

 with the splendid collection that is being located at Taronga Park, many 

 town children will be able to know something of the Australian fauna. 



The Gould League of Bird Lovers was founded by some enthusiastic officers 



in the Department of Education in 1910, as a result of which, thousands of 



school children receive a certificate, and promise to protect the birds, their 



nests, and eggs. 



The Influence of Literature. 



The description and illustration oE the habits of our insectivorous birds, by 

 the various authors who have devoted their attention to them, has also gone 

 far to enlist the sympathy of the average man as well as materially to benefit 

 producers. Among the first books on our birds was Lewin's " Australian 

 Birds," with hand-coloured plates, which appeared in 1822 ; but it was John 

 Gould who did in Australia what Audubon had done in North America. Gould 

 issued his great work, in seven folio volumes, giving a complete list, with 

 coloured plates and life histories of all the Australian birds described up to 

 that date (1848-69). The publication of his "Handbook of the Birds of 

 Australia" in 1865 enabled all bird lovers and students to acquire a scientific 

 and general idea of Australian birds which was not previously obtainable. 

 It was a happy thought of the educational officers interested in nature-study 

 to call their children's association " The Gould League of Bird Lovers." In 

 1911 Leach's "Australian Bird Book,"— one of the most useful field-books 

 that was ever brought out— was published in Melbourne by an arrangement 

 with the Education Department of Victoria. 



