^°'i ^'^'] Economic Section. 249 



corrcsponcUiits iipnn tin- ofificc, since its speciiil Inisiness is to 

 redress obvious grievances personally expt'rienced." Quotations 

 are given, however, of correspondents' testimony to the value 

 of the Magpie-Lark {Grallina picata) as a destroyer of green aphis 

 among turnips and of the Silver-eye {Zosterops dorsalis) as an 

 enemy to many kinds of small insects. Among other references 

 to birds are the following comments : — 



Tlie Blue Bald-Coot or Red-bill {Porplivnu /y/r/</;uV//.s). — Tliis 

 bird has until recently been the object of the " close season " 

 provision ; but lately, in the Mackay district, where it has been 

 found to be harmful to young sugar-cane, not only has this 

 protection, in response to the application of local residents, been 

 removed, but the Mackay Districts Flying Fox Destruction 

 Board desired to constitute it a pest under the Local Authorities 

 Acts 1902-17, and, moreover, to offer a bonus of 6d. per head 

 for its destruction.'-> Your representative felt it incumbent upon 

 him to set forth the case for the defence of this bird in February 

 last. 



The RainI)ow-Birtl or Bee-eater {iMerops ornatns). — In Decem- 

 ber, 1918, the Queensland Beekeepers' Association submitted a 

 proposal that the protection accorded this bird under the Native 

 Birds Protection Act be removed. In the interest of one of the 

 gayest-liveried of om- feathered friends, we have dissented from 

 this proposal. This beautiful bird is a Queensland summer 

 visitant, only coming here to breed ; and, as it is to be shot with 

 facility, any license to kill it would soon much reduce its numbers. 

 It is strictly insectivorous, but its taste for bees is not commonly 

 and persistently exercised, feeding generally as it does on beetles, 

 Neiiroptera, and winged ants. Where hives are few and swarms 

 weak, or where there is a decline in bee-strength owing to a bad 

 season, as was experienced in i8g8 by apiarists here, its habit of 

 capturing bees is noticed, and loss of bees is to an undue extent 

 attributed to the bird ; but, under other circumstances, its bee- 

 feeding habit has little or no influence on reducing the numbers 

 of bees. Its occasional weakness for these insects had always 

 been remarked here, notwithstanding no such proposal as that 

 in question had earlier reached us. And, unfortunately, it is now 

 accompanied by one of like nature, emanating from another 

 quarter, for slaughtering this gem amongst insectivorous birds 

 in the interests of the millinery trade seeking still another plume 

 — cost to bird-life what it will. 



" Scrub-Magpie " or " Black Magpie " {Strepcra gyactili)ia). — 

 This bird of many useful propensities, including the exercise of 

 a notew^orthy insectivorous habit, is again condemned as a prickly 

 pear disseminator without question in its case. A special 

 memorandum, covering the feeding habits of this active bird, 

 was prepared for the information and guidance of the South Coast 

 Crows and Flying Fox Destruction Boards ; but, being evidently 

 impressed by the more obvious indirectly harmful habits of the 

 bird rather than by the more prc^lominant and dirc'ctlv useful 



