T. P. Bellchambers — The Mallee Fowl of Australia 19


imported alive into Europe before was the bird that the Berlin Zoological

Gardens had in 1912, and I think it did not live very long there.


The Long-tailed Roller is common throughout Central Africa, from

Angola to Zanzibar. It is a shy bird, living in hilly, wooded countries.

Like all its congeners it feeds on insects caught on the wing, and nests

in holes of trees. The plumage of the Long-tailed Roller is extremely

handsome : top of the head and hind neck, dark green ; white eye-

brows ; cheeks, violet chestnut ; throat and chest, rich lilac streaked

with white — especially on the throat in my bird, this beautiful lilac

colour extends up to the cheeks, and there is very little difference in

the colouring of the cheeks and that of the breast ; underparts, light

turquoise blue ; back, greenish cinnamon ; wings, bright light blue and

rich dark blue ; light blue tail with central feathers dark greenish

blue, and the two outermost rectrices elongated, very pale blue with

black thin ends ; bill, black ; feet, grey. The males and females of this

species have the same plumage, so that I have no idea of the sex of

my bird.



THE MALLEE FOWL OF AUSTRALIA


By T. P. Bellchambers, South Australia


The crime of civilization is its callous disregard of the wasteful

exploitations of wild life, which go on in the name of sport and

of commerce. What better off will the world be that the fur-seals and

right whales have ever existed on this planet when the last moth-eaten

garment is thrown on the rubbish-heap and the last cask of oil

exhausted ? What shall repay future generations for the barbarous

destruction of the beautiful Egrets and the ill-used Penguins that are

driven alive along roads ending over boiling caldrons in Maquari

Islands ? Who can tell what evils we are laying up for future

generations by this wanton destruction of Nature's guardians of sea

and land ? A chain has but the strength of its weakest link. Slowly

and surely man is undermining the foundations on which life itself

rests. We know that there are some live forms whose work is so

important to man that living they are worth their weight in gold,



