MORGAN — The Weights of Some Australian Birds. 91 



Flight — Powerful, and at times, elegant ; they soar round 

 and round in great circles before alighting. At times they rise 

 to a great height and travel long distances. 



Food — Grasshoppers, crickets, frogs, mice, and many kinds 

 of insects, terrestial and aquatic, freshwater snails, etc. 



Call — A harsh croaking note, but on the whole they are 

 very silent. 



The Ibis is one of the most useful birds, and has been known 

 to congregate in vast numbers in front of a plague of locusts, 

 and to have stopped the progress of these insects. This bird 

 is totally protected in South Australia, under the Animals and 

 Birds Protection Act. 



The Weights of Some Australian Birds. 



—By A. M. Morgan, M.B., B.Ch.— 



During a holiday in the South-East of this State last Octo 

 ber, I took the opportunity to weigh each of the birds 1 collected, 

 and also their brains, with the object of finding the percentage 

 of the latter to the body weight. I also weighed all the eggs 

 I collected. As regards the relative weights of the brains my re- 

 sults are so uneven that I think it would be well to obtain many 

 more observations before publishing the results. Many factors 

 may upset the balance in a small bird, such as much loss of 

 blood, containing several shot, or being in poor condition; all 

 of which would increase the relative proportion of brain to 

 h<)(]y. Tlie weights of birds' bodies and eggs may, liOA\'ever, be 

 of interest to some of our members, and I am therefore publish- 

 ing them. 



All weights are given in grammes, and the names are those 

 in Mr. Mathews's 1918 list:— 



Name of Bird. Weight. 



$ . Hypotaenidia philliprnmn. — Buff-banded Rail 287.4 

 9 . Laporina pusilla polufitris. — Little Crake 22.2 



S. Leuropolius rufirapilliis. — Red-capped Dotterel 89.8. 



