72 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



supervised (in destroying dead carcases). The 100 men would cost at least 

 .£200 a week, and a crow would keep himself to a small extent on eggs or 

 chickens, and a few weak lambs or old sheep in times of drought." 



The bushman, while he is interested in the knowing ways of the cosmo- 

 politan crow, does not particularly love that bird, but in his wanderings 

 comes across him in all parts of the continent. It wakens him with its 

 mocking mournful cry when sick and weary in his lonely camp. If he 

 happens to get lost in the scrub, hunting for his horses, away from*water, 

 the crows appear, and the inflections in their call seem to distinctly change. 

 No longer is the sound a sharp clear caw-caw — the notes are long and drawn 

 out, seeming to the bewildered traveller to say in evil tone, "When are you 

 going to die — die?" 



Many are the stories told round the camp, regarding the wisdom of the 

 crow — how when an inquisitive crow arrives at a camp where the traveller 

 is resting under the trees apparently asleep, it will pick up a bit of dry bark 

 in its beak, and flyina; up into the gum-tree, drop it on the face of the 

 sleeper to see if he is really asleep or only shamming, before it ventures to 

 come around and pick up the scraps. 



The outback bushman will tell you he has seen a crow when it has dis- 

 covered the unprotected eggs in an emu's nest among the saltbush, hunt 

 round for a stone, pick it up in its claws, and hovering over the nest, drop 

 the stone among the eggs, and thus secure an ample dinner. This story may 

 be quite correct — there is very little a wary old western crow does not know 

 ■ — but it lacks confirmation. 



In conclusion, it will be s^en that, like other of our insectivorous birds, the 

 crow has a dual character. While he is one of our most useful insectivorous 

 birds, and by far the best cleaner-up of ofial and carrion in Australia, and 

 taking his work all over the State, does far more good than harm, yet he 

 may become a very sei'ious local pest. This usuall}'^ comes about through 

 an undue increase in their numbers in a certain district, and the consequent 

 failure of their food supplies. Under a properly adjusted bird protection 

 act, the crow, while enjoying the protection he merits in his own district, 

 could easily be proclaimed a pest when he begins his a^'tack upon lambs and 

 lambing ewes in the distinct where he is doing the damage. 



The White-winged Chough or Black Magpie {Corcorax melanorhamphus 



S^ieill). 

 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 47, No. 288 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 189, No. 391. 

 This bird is known under several different names. In the open forests of 

 northern Victoria it used to be called the Black Magpie, or the Chattering 

 Jay, both of which give one some idea of the bird. 



It is not a coastal bird, but is found in open forest land and ranges in 

 to the interior, where, family parties of from five to a dozen or more 

 scatter over the ground, turning over bits of birk, sticks, and leaves as 



