102 WHITE — Birds Recorded from the Early Days up to the 



these giant trees, and on their limbs the Whistling Eagles, and 

 White-fronted Herons built their nests. Amidst the low rushes 

 and sedges on swampy ground the beautiful Ground Parrakeet 

 was flushed to drop like a quail again to cover. The Swift 

 Lorikeet came from Tasmania and visited the flowering gums, 

 and the White Cockatoos screeched amidst the timber. Most 

 of these birds have for ever gone from this district, while in 

 some instances they are extinct as far as South Australia is 

 concerned. 



Thinking that it would be as well to record those species 

 which have come under the writer's observation during his life 

 time, and that of his father's, many of which have quite dis- 

 appeared now, while there are a few species still hanging on 

 to a small island! of timber, an island unfortunately assailed on 

 all sides by the devastating hand of so-called ^advancing civili- 

 zation, and becoming smaller and smaller each year from these 

 causes. Even pro})erty which has been in the family since the 

 very first, and the timber thereon most jealously guarded, has 

 of late come under the despoiler's hand, and the few remaining 

 species of native birds are confined to a restricted area which 

 threatens them with extinction. The original owners of the 

 country (the Whites) are gradually dying out, and as we play 

 our part, and leave the stage upon which we fonght for t'he 

 fauna and flora of the district, so gradually does the hand of 

 nature disappear around us, and with the last member's exit 

 (probably the writer) from this world's stage, so will the last 

 vestage of the old times Reed-beds disappear. It is for these 

 reasons above stated, that the writer believes that it would be 

 well to record those birds as far as possible which once 

 inhabited the Reed-beds district. 



Dromiceius nova eli olio ndiae (Emu). — Once abounded in 

 numbers upon the Adelaide Plains, but they were not within my 

 recollection. 



Cotm^nir pertoralis (Eastern Stubble Quail). — This bird 

 was extremely plentiful in the eighties, and I have seen hun- 

 dred's in a day amidst the long gra^s near the swamps, thpir 

 short but lond note is still ito be heard in the spring time, but 

 where there is one now there were hundreds in the old days. 

 When they nested profusely nearly every tussock of grass shel- 

 tered a nest. 



Afisfrofvrvi.T velox (Eastern Little Quail). — Was almost 

 as numerous, in the old days as the preceding species. I have 

 flushed and seen dozens in flight at the same time; they also 

 nested in numbers, but are rare now. 



