SOME USKFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



game and freshly-skinned or killed animals. In a nest examined near Uralla 

 I found the remains of three hares, one opossum, two rabbits, and the skins 

 of two fox cubs about a foot long, and in this case there were plenty of 

 lambing ewes in the paddock where the birds were nesting. When once 

 seen, this great bird, with its blackish-brown plumage, edged along the 

 feathers with pale brown, cannot be mistaken for any other species, and, 

 under ox'dinary conditions on the western stations, they become comparatively 

 tame, and take very little notice of man. There is no reason why, where 

 birds like our great eagle and the allied hawks are doing no harm, they 

 should not have the benefit of protection laws on account of their value as 

 scavengers. It is a very simple matter to place them on the black list in 

 every district where they are found killing lambs or poultry, and destroy all 

 those that have acquired these bad habits. 



The Brown Tree-creeper (Climacteris scandens Tem.). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 598, No. 366 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 155, No. 331. 



All through the open forest country of Queensland and the southern half 

 of Australia, particularly along the river gums and open box forests, you will 

 find this curious little reddish-brown bird flitting from tree to tree, generally 

 alighting on the base of the stem and running up it to the branches. When 

 flying, the light reddish markings on the wings are very conspicuous. On 

 the ground its mode of progression is by a series of hops. It is a friendly little 

 bird about one's camp. We had numbers of them round our Experiment 

 Station n'^ar Hay, which was between the river gums and an open box forest 

 running out into the plain beyond ; such country is the kind they love. 



It is a busy, insectivorous bird, catching insects both on the ground and 

 on tree trunks, and utters a sharp, shrill cry as if frightened when startled 

 as it is running up a tree trunk. 



The nest of these birds is of soft hair, feathers, or wool. In the Murray 

 frontages, when opossums were plentiful, the little builders used to pick fur 

 from the sleeping opossum and carry it down into the hollow stem or branch 

 in which they had formed their nesting places ; here they would deposit two 

 reddish eggs, thickly blotched with reddish-brown. 



The Orange- winged Nut-hatch {Neositta chrysoptera Swains.). 

 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 609, No. 373 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 153, No. 328. 



The Orange-winged Nut-hatch was originally described in the old genus 

 SitteJla, which contains the European nut-hatches. Campbell lists seven 

 species described from Australia. This one, typical of the group, has a wide 

 range from Queensland, through New South Wales and Victoria into South 

 Australia, and it inhabits the open forest country. 



These birds are gregarious, forming small family parties up to about eight 

 in number, running about over the limbs of the trees and twisting about 

 among the foliage hunting for insects, spiders, homoptera, small beetles, and 



