SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 37 



The eggs, four in number, are bluish-white, marked all over with reddish- 

 brown dots. The Miner thrives under domestic conditions, and is a popular 

 bird despite its depredations in the fruit season, 



Laughing jackass {Dacdo gigas Boddart). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 122, No, 60 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 105, No. 22.1. 



The members of the genus Dacelo comprise some of the largest known 

 specimens of the family. They are quite unlike the smaller and more typical 

 kingfishers which are always found along the banks of creeks and rivers 

 and (as their name implies) capture small fish. The Laughing-jackass knows 

 little or nothing about fishing, and lives in the dry open forest country, 

 often miles away from the water. As it feeds upon small mammals, young 

 birds, hzards, earthworms, grubs, and earth-haunting insects, with an 

 occasional small snake, it requires very little water. Gould says " I believe 

 water is not essential to their existence, and that they seldom or never drink." 

 It is rather curious that this bird is not found in Tasmania, where there is 

 so much forest country similar to that on the mainland. It is not indigenous 

 to Western Australia, but it was introduced there some years ago and is 

 now well established. 



There are three well-defined species of this genus peculiar to Australia. 

 The Laughing-jackass (ranging from South Australia, Victoria, New South 

 Wales and through the southern half of Queensland) gives place northward to 

 Leach's Kingfisher (Dacelo leachi) , which is slightly larger, has blue on the back 

 and wings, is much n.ore brilliantly coloured, and may be regarded as a 

 tropical form of our first species. In this bird we have the phenomenon of a 

 Laughing-jackass that cannot laugh, for its discordant note is far more of a bark. 

 The third species, now often called a variety of Leach's Kingfisher, is the 

 Fawn-breasted Kingfisher (Dacelo cervina), described by Gould under the 

 name of Dacelo occidentalis. It is somewhat smaller than Leach's Kingfisher, 

 frequents the tops of the tallest trees, and has a very discordant voice. It 

 extends its range beyond that of Leach's Kingfisher, through the Northern 

 Territory into Western Australia. 



Of the many travellers and naturalists who have written about the 

 Australian bush, none forget to make mention of the Laughing-jackass. It 

 was described and figured in White's " Voyage to New South Wales " in 

 1790, under the name Great Brown Kingfisher, but the early pioneers' 

 association of the bird's call with the "hee-haw" of the domestic donkey, 

 made its more popular christening inevitable. Hence — though scientifically 

 the Great Brown Kingfisher, and alternatively, the Kookaburra and Settlers' 

 Clock (on account of its noisiness at daylight and dark), our jovial friend is 

 likely to remain the Laughing-jackass to the good Australian on the land. 



There are few places in our bush where one can camp without hearing the call 

 of the Laughing-jackass at dawn and evening. In the evening in particular 

 they have a habit of gathering together in a little family party of half-a- 

 dozen or more, when they relate the experiences of the day in chuckles and 

 laughs that almost appear intelligible to the meditative bushman. 



