Baticv, Bird-Life Sixty Years Ago. 



luly 



Messrs. Edward and John William Page in 1836. Besides 

 sheoaks on Glencoe, there were clumps of white, yellow, and 

 spotted box {Eucalyptus), and three or four small patches of 

 mallee-like scrub. The course of Emu Creek was timbered like 

 that of Jackson's Creek. The greater portion of the 15,000 

 acres was plain, with odd trees dotted around. Thus, all these 

 things considered, the block was, in earlier times, a paradise for 

 a variety of birds, many of which, owing to the destruction of 

 trees, have now left the district. Some species have become 

 extinct a long way outside of the territory selected for this 

 paper. 



BIRDS OF PREY. 



Wedcie-tailed Eagle {Uroaetus audax). — This great bird was very 

 numerous in 1846. Shot-guns could have reduced it in a very slight 

 degree ; good rifles would, but we did not use that kind of firearm those 

 days. Though Eagles were ever so plentiful, my tally was only four. I 

 do not suppose my late father accounted for more than six in his day. When 

 strychnine was introduced, however, it rapidly balanced accounts with these 

 destructive birds. During the lambing of 1850, on the Emu Creek, my father 

 poisoned dead lambs, and by the time dropping was finished I had 14 

 of the great birds laid in a row. It was ascertained that an Eagle's method 

 of killing a young lamb was to drive its posverful talons through the skull of 

 the defenceless creature. The bird then stood on the victim, broke into the 

 fore part, and, working to the rear, if undisturbed, stripped the flesh, leaving 

 only skin and skeleton. My e.xperience of Wedge-tails covers a lifetime, 

 yet I never saw one attempt to fly ofl" with a young lamb, though at that 

 stage it is a light weight. Lambing takes place before Eagles begin nesting, 

 consequently when a lamb was killed there was no necessity to carry it 

 away. In later times it was discovered Eagles had nested in tall trees in 

 gullies in Brodie's Forest.* Evidently these bulky structures last for a great 

 number of years. In proof how destructive Eagles were, in 1850 1 had 

 charge of a strong mob containing lambs from three days to six weeks old. 

 One morning, reaching my flock after sunrise, a brace of lambs lay dead, 

 with the birds standing on them ; several other Wedge-tails were on the 

 scene. If they had been left to follow their inclinations the probabilities are 

 that each bird would have slain a lamb. 



Sea-Eaule {Haliactus Icucogastcr). — It was during 1851 that one of these 

 magnificent birds appeared on Jackson's Creek, where it remained a con- 

 siderable time. It is the same bird we find in Riverina, where in the sixties 

 one that had been shot was examined, after which another was seen seven 

 miles south of Hay. 



Whistling Eagle {Haliasiur sphcnurus). — This large Hawk casually 

 visited the locality in autumn or winter, and feasted on dead carcasses. It 

 has a plaintive whistling voice. My father named it the "Thick-headed 

 Hawk." 



Hlack-cheekeu Falcon {Falco >ne/aiiogenys).—My opinion is that, for 

 rapidity of flight, this bird cannot be excelled. I have noticed it taking 

 exercise— headlong plunges downwards and then shooting up vertically, ft 

 was somewhat rare our way, and was supposed to nest in the Eagle Rocks, 

 situated on our run. The clift"in question is the finest on Jackson's Creek. 

 Magpies, though very courageous, feared this Falcon greatly, for, from 

 observation, when other birds raised alarm cries on its apj^oach, the Mag- 

 pies consulted their own safety. Those years Musky Lorikeets, following up 



* .SiUiatcd to the suutli of Jackson's (Jieuk. 



