Si 



"to those members of the family known as white-eyes, or silver-eyes — 



"from the quaint spectacle-like adornments around the eyes. These birds 



" are very partial to gardens, where they will nest, if not molested. They 



" are thus handy at fruit time, when they at once get to work. The white- 



" eyes are always a source of anger to the gardener, and they are shot at 



" this time of the year without mercy. As there is nothing very attractive 



"about the bird, either in its appearance or its habits, and as it is fairly 



"plentiful, I am not going to condemn the gardeners altogether. But I 



"must say that, when there is no fruit available, the little white-eyes do a 



"deal of good in the gardens, by eating insects, aphis, scale, and other 



" fruit pests. So that, by killing them off the fruit-grower maybe only 



" falling out of the frying-pan into the fire. I would advise some of these 



"irate orchardists, who see no good in any birds, to just put in a few spare 



"days when there is no fruit about, watching what the birds in their 



'•gardens are doing. They might find that even the poor, little, much- 



" abused white-eye is really paying his way." 



— Australasian and Sydney Mail, 

 i:- * * 



THE GOBURRA. 

 " It should be an axiom with our naturalists that the giant king- 

 " fisher should be given its aboriginal name, which is both appropriate and 

 "significant. To call the goburra the laughing jackass because its cry 

 " resembles in some dim fashion the bray of the jackass is inappropriate. In 

 "the New England district the aboriginal name for the bird is kookaburra, 

 " which has the additional merit of being a musical cognomen. Dacelo 

 " gigas is the scientific nomenclature of the great brown kingfisher, goburra, 

 " or kookaburra, whose eerie laugh wakes the morning wasters of the bush 

 "and anon bids good-bye to the sun. The bird is wisely protected on 

 "account of its habit of destroying young snakes. The writer has seen four 

 " of them making enough clatter to wake the dead round a large snake 

 "which none of them were game to tackle. The birds knew their limita- 

 "tions. They tried to hit it with their wings as they flew over the full- 

 " gorged black snake, lying in the sun, but they finally gave up trying to 

 "annoy it, and sat down on low bushes yelling at it, and no doubt telling 

 "each other what they would do to it if they dared. The snake's only 

 "resDonse was to raise its head as they came close, and sway out of the 

 " way of their flight, and then launch out a foot or so of body unavailingly 

 "after them. The bird is a great destroyer of lizards, and small snakes, as 

 -'well as other vermin, and can eat a large number without straining its 

 " crop. The eggs are large and white, and are deposited on decayed 

 "wood in any convenient hollow of a eucalypt. There the lizards find 

 "them and eat them. The average size of the egg is one and three- 

 quarter inch by one and a quarter inch. In the plumage of these birds 

 " many curious large flat lice like ticks are found." 



— Australasian and Sydney Mail. 



