36 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



The Miner or Soldier-bird {Myzantha garrula Vig. and Horsf.). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 574, No. 353 ; Leach'e Bird Book, p. 173, No. 173. 



This well-known honey-eater ranges all over Tasmania, Victoria, South 

 Australia, New South Wales, and south-eastern Queensland ; there are several 

 other allied species with a more restricte^i habitat in the west, the interior, 

 and northern Queensland. Wherever there are open eucalyptus trees 

 growing you will find this noisy bird, popularly known as the Australian 

 Miner, to distinguish him from the very different Indian Minah, which is- 

 somewhat of a house pest in some of our towns. It has a host of popular 

 names, such as the Squeaker, Micky, Snake-bird, and Cherry-picker. I have 

 also heard it called Cockney in Victoria from the fact that it usually fights 

 in mobs. 



Under natural conditions the Soldier-bird is very fearless and friendly, and 

 will come round the camp to pick up scraps and even enter a house or fly 

 into a tent. These birds are great fighters, and if one of their number gets 

 into trouble bis loud cries soon bring his comrades to his assistance. I 

 recall hearing a great commotion among the Miners in my garden, and 

 discovering the cat standing on one on a fence post ; the bird was- 

 putting up a great fight, while about a dozen more were darting round, 

 screaming and snapping at the cat's bead. Unable to stand the stress of 

 battle the cat released its victim and i*etreated under the house. (3n another 

 occasion a small hawk was observed in the cat's predicament ; it finally 

 dropped the fighting Miner, though the latter lost half his feathers before- 

 he escaped. 



Like a number of the other honey-eaters (MeliphagidcB), the Miner — 

 having its brush-tipped tongue so admirably adapted for sucking up nectar 

 from bush flowers — discovered it to be also very serviceable for feeding upon 

 ripe fruit. Consequently it is often an orchard pest. Indeed, remembering 

 the damage done by it in country gardens (particularly among the ripe grapes) 

 the reader might debate its right to a place in our best of useful birds. It 

 is one of the few birds, however, that feed both on blow-flies about the bush 

 and upon their maggots when ci'awling out of a carcase. Miners often enter 

 an open tent to snap up blow-flies buzzing on the loof. At Warrah Experi- 

 ment Station one of these birds regularly takes up his station on the top of 

 one of our fly traps, catching the hovering flies and picking on the gauze top 

 at those imprisoned beneath. In the vicinity of a camp, Miners become 

 cosmopolitan in their tastes, and will eat bread or meat and not neglect the 

 carelessly left jam jar. 



This bird is so universally known that it needs no close description. Its 

 slate-grey plumage, marked on the head with black, makes its easily recognised, 

 while the bare yellow spaces below the eyes, making it look as if it were^ 

 blind, is a noticeable mark of identification. Its nest (usually placed in the 

 fork of a small or medium-sized gum-tree) is a neatly made, open, cup-shaped 

 structure, composed of grass and twigs, and lined with wool, hair, or feathers. 



