288 ROT',KR'I\S. lUnis of the Cramtc Belt \'\stA^ti 



The Small Birds of the Granite Belt 



iiy Or. SI'EXCER KDP.KRTS, R.A.fJ.U.. 



and 



HUBI{RT JARVLS. Assistant Government Kntoniologist, 

 Stanthorpe, Qld. 



Durinj^ recent months the attention of the authors of this 

 article has been focussed upon insects and insect control, and 

 many side issues, amongst them birds, have cropped up and been 

 under discussion. One of us is a professional entomologist, the 

 other an amateur dabbler in ornithology and entomology, with a 

 strong leaning to applied and comparative anatomy. So if we 

 ride our hobby horses overmuch at times, we ask indulgence. 



We happen to be working in an area which we both think 

 highly interesting from our points of view, and one of us (S. R.) 

 brieHy outlined in The Emu of April, 1922, the geography of 

 the place. Too much detail is to be discouraged, and yet certain 

 topographical facts must be put clearly. This Granite Belt, as 

 it is termed, is the meeting point of the Dividing Range of South 

 Queensland, covered for the most part in sub-tropical vine scrub, 

 and of the Xew England highland, mainly granite, and a cold 

 country. Further, it is in relation.ship of an intimate nature with 

 the eastern waters of N.S.W., a humid, moist climate, and the 

 great western country of Queensland, a dry hot plateau. So it 

 draws upon all these diverse sources for bird and insect life, 

 besides having some peculiarly its own ; but only the hardy may 

 remain, as it is a bleak and inhospitable country for a great 

 l>art of the year. And just as too great detail is to be depre- 

 cated, so with thinking aloud. Xe\ertheless the main ideas 

 which have guided the de\elopment of our article should be 

 stated. We have been profoundly imi)ressed by the heat and 

 chaos in regard to the i)rinci])les underlying classification and 

 ntjmenclature ; by the former term meaning generic and suchlike 

 distinctions, and by the latter those pertaining to i)riority and its 

 attendant evils. 



So it has come about that our study has commenced with the 

 Small Brown Birds with which we meet, giving each the name 

 in the R.A.O.U. Check-list (Draft of Second Edition), with 

 details of their general habits, their nesting, food, and superficial 

 features. If the Eskimo, from his hard food and i)eculiar taste 

 in treating hides by chewing them, can modify his facial skeleton, 

 so, we argue, Sniicrornis hrcvirostris may develop a facies of his 

 very own, if he does similar strange things. And we also bear 

 in mind that for a century, and until comparatively recently, 

 male and female of certain jiarrots were separated as distinct 

 species, even distinct genera, and that the first field workers to 

 state they were one and the same met with, to put it mildlv. 

 disbelief. 



