^°'£"] CHISHOL^I, The "Lost" Paradise Parrot. 15 



the Cherwal l\i\er, abcntt four or fi\e miles iKjrtli of Howard, 

 and a few on the Isis River. This was about the year 1910, so 

 there is only a very remote chance of them being left. Now," 

 he proceeds, "these lovely birds have been ((jr are being j ex- 

 terminated by iguanas. It is no trouble at all for the 'goanna' to 

 dip into their nests and take either the eggs or young. The same 

 thing applies to the nests of many birds which build on branches. 

 I know what I am saying to be correct, as I have rei>eatedly 

 shot 'goannas' in the act of robbing nests, and other shooters 

 have told me the same thing. ... I say most emphatically that 

 the iguana does more harm to our birds in one nesting season 

 than is counter-balanced by all the good it does during the re- 

 mainder of its life." 



While admitting the general soundness of these observations, 

 it has to be remembered that natural enemies of the "Ant-hill" 

 Parrot were just as numerous in the days when the bird held 

 its own. A similar consideration must apply also in regard to 

 a note that the aboriginals were wont to pull the young Parrots 

 out of their ant-hill homes and roast them for food. W'hat ap- 

 pears to me to be more feasible as a cause of the decimation is 

 contained in a letter from Air. H. Griffith, of Jimboomba, near 

 Beaudesert, who oiifers the interesting suggestion that considera- 

 tions of ff)od, affected through human agency, may have been 

 the primary cause of the sad thinning- out of this Ground Parrot. 

 "In this district," he says, "the settlers burn the grass annually, 

 and that at a time when the seed is ripe. The grass must grow 

 thinner, I fancy, leaving only the tough old roots established. 

 Do you think this wholesale burnmg-ofif, which has been going on 

 for years, has caused starvation among the Ant-hill Parrots or 

 a wholesale movement to the west, where, perhaps, drought and 

 fires have again helped to further the work of destruction .'" 

 Then there is the question of loss of food through natural causes. 

 Mr. Barnard expresses the view that the big drought of 1902 

 wiped out the Fairfield birds, and Mr. Brenan says : "As the 

 birds lived entirely on grass seed, the big drought would have 

 levied a heavy toll." The force of these contentions is obvious, 

 and is very little lessened by the prevalence of Cockatoos and 

 Warbling Grass Parrots (Budgerigahs), which are birds of the 

 west rather than the coastal grass, and essentially communistic. 



But there is yet another element that has contributed to the 

 tragedy of the "Ant-hill" Parrot. This factor is pointed to by 

 Mr. Griffith in a further note, in \vhich he says : "We have a 

 pensioner living here, aged 97 years, who at one time trapped 

 birds for a living. He knew the Ant-hill Parrot well, and says 

 that he got ten shillings each for them ; but that was years ago. 

 He mentioned to me that he once set his traps to catch some of 

 these birds at the nest, and on going up to it in the evening found 

 that a large black snake had entered. Fancy trapping the parent 

 birds, though, when the young w^ere helpless!" Further evi- 

 dence upon the point comes from Mr. R. Illidge, a Brisbane 



