BIRDS OF OUR BUSH 



took him to the house and examined him, his parents the 

 while expressing themselves in their own weird booming 

 fashion. Had our cameras been handy, he would have 

 remained with us till the morning. As it was we allowed 

 him to depart. 



On the main Sassafras road, near the Station, a pair of 

 pretty little Sacred Kingfishers seemed to have established 

 their home. Their shrill monotonous call could be heard at 

 almost any hour of the day. We have searched long and 

 diligently for a nest which would give promise of photo- 

 graphic results, but so far we have not succeeded, and our 

 only knowledge of the habits of the bird is the memory of 

 a nest found away back in the dim past of childhood's days. 



On page 111 is reproduced a photograph for which we 

 would deem it necessary to offer an apology, were it not for 

 the fact that pictures of the bird are not common. The 

 primitive apparatus in use when the snap was taken, more- 

 over, rendered any degree of success at all something to be 

 prized. The Straw-necked Ibis is a fine bird — a noble 

 bird to look at, and a useful one as well. Like the Cockatoo 

 Parrakeet already referred to, it puts in an appearance in 

 the Meredith district or round about Melbourne only when 

 a bad season depletes its food supply further north. A 

 flock of several hundred Ibis, indulging in their slow, uni- 

 form flight, is a sight indeed. The picture mentioned was 

 taken in December, 1909, while flocks of this solitary sub- 

 ject's companions were taking toll of the grasshoppers and 

 similar pests in the sheep runs within a few miles of the 

 township. The reason for this bird's hermit disposition 

 we know not. He made a good living, that was evident, 

 from the shallow water round the edges of the water-holes 

 in the vicinity of the Railway Station. The photograph 

 is one of the few we have been able to secure without the 

 accustomed attraction of a nest or young birds. This bird 

 was simply feeding, and was driven into the required posi- 

 tion by the brother and sister of one of the writers. The 

 old magazine camera was fastened firmly to the ground 

 with sticks and trained on a small piece of bark at a mea- 

 sured distance in the shallow water. When the operator 

 had retired with a considerable length of thick cord 

 attached to the camera shutter, the other member's of the 

 partv, by a judicious disposition of their fo^-ces, directed the 

 subject's feeding operations in the required direction. Once 



112 



