258 P.ARRETT, Birds Around a Homestead. [Tl't^/p"?!! 



j:jo down a rose-bordered pathway to the creek, where Rufous 

 Whistlers (Fachycephala rufiventris) were singing high in the 

 willows. Every day I heard them, triumphing over lesser birds 

 that called and sang much nearer to the ground. One W^histler 

 favoured an almond tree, whose boughs reach over the home- 

 stead roof ; his nest, maybe, was close at hand, but I failed to 

 discover it. 



Just over the creek, in the orchard, lay the haunt of many- 

 birds. Flocks of Rosellas (Platycer:tis exijiiiiis) and Crimson 

 Parrots (P. clegans) came to the trees every morning, but rarely 

 remained for long. The "residents" included I'lack and White 

 Fantails, Blue Wren-Warblers {Malnrus cyanens), Brown Tit- 

 Warblers {.Icanthiza pusilla), Silver Eyes (Zosterops lateralis), 

 and other familiar small birds. Here, too, I saw the Kookaburra 

 (Dacelo gic/as), and heard the piercing call notes of Grallinas 

 along the water side. Wood Swallows {Artamiis cyanoptertis) 

 were nesting, and, rarely, a Pallid Cuckoo (Cucidus pallidus) 

 called. 



Walking through the sheepyards, down past the woolshed, I 

 had the company of Welcome Swallows {Hirimdo neoxena), 

 and saw many Sparrows, whose nests were hidden about the 

 roof of the old building. Swallows nest under the verandah of 

 the homestead, and rear their broods every season. One nest is 

 on a window sill, close to a wire-screened door — a good hunting- 

 ground for flies. 



In November, Bee-eaters (Merops am at us) were plentiful 

 around the garden. They perched on boughs and clothes lines, 

 singly or in rows of three or four, darting after insects now and 

 then, and uttering the notes that fall so pleasantly on a bird- 

 lover's ears. Among hawthorn bushes, relics of a hedge, or 

 strays from an old garden, Tit-Warblers and Robins were fairly 

 plentiful. I saw flocks of the Yellow-tailed Tit-Warbler {.Ican- 

 thica chrysorrhoa) , and found a few nests. The Scarlet-breasted 

 Robin {Petroica jiiulticolor) was here; but he had a rival in the 

 Red-cai)ped Robin (P. goodoiozni), whose glorious coloring won 

 the admiration of an English lady at the homestead. "He is 

 more brilliant than our Robin Redbreast," she said. This bird 

 was so tame that it allowed me to approach within two yards of 

 its perch on a fence post. Then, as I remained still and watch- 

 ful, it flew down and captured an insect in the grass close to my 

 feet. Each morning I saw it in the same place; once the female 

 was there, and the pair danced attendance on two young Red- 

 caps, which called from a bower of hawthorn leaves. The be- 

 haviour of these Robins indicated that they had rights over a 

 small territory, though T did not actually see them drive away 

 intruders. Earlier in the season, doubtless, before theii brood 

 had ranged, the Redcaps were less tolerant. T am convinced 

 that at least some species of Australian birds, like those of which 

 Eliot Howard has written ("Territory in Bird Life," by H. Eliot 

 Howard), guard areas, whose boundaries are more or less well 



