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Mr. A. R. Williams,



The year after the drought I had occasion to be on the coast country,

and noticed numbers of Malurus in the long grass.


During the year of drought many of the far-western birds

came into our district, notably the Ground Graucalus (Pteropodocys

phasianella ), Western Miner (Myzantha flavigula ), and Cockatoo-

Parrot.


The Bustard, or Plain Turkey, is rarely seen in our district,

but when a bad season occurs in the West, they work in towards the

coast, and last winter I shot a female weighing 17 lb. When

plucking the feathers off I was surprised to find spear grass seed

sticking thickly into the skin, principally round the base of the

neck, but more or less all over the body, many of the “ spears ”

being completely embedded in the flesh. Now, hundreds of these

birds would find their way back to the Western plains, and eventually

drop the dreaded spear grass in the sheep country.


In 1903 I was up towards the Gulf country, and was told

that the Bustards were driven in towards the Gulf by the drought the

previous year, and that hundreds died from drinking the salt water

in the salt-pans.


The poor Laughing Jackass (Dacelo gigas) had a bad time in

that year, and numbers died. Several times three or four were seen

lying under the night-roost, and for some years after the drought it

was rare to hear a “ corrobboree ” in the early morning. Now, how¬

ever. they have become plentiful again, and the “ bushman’s clock ”

chimes regularly every morning. Magpies became so weak that

they could not fly, and no doubt many died. Also many of the

smaller birds died.



PHEASANTS.


By A. R. Williams.


I.


At six o’clock on a fine August morning I opened my

bedroom window and looked out. The sun was not yet clear of the

trees on top of the Downs, but was rapidly changing the sky from

blue to white, increasingly gold and red eastward. There was a

sharp touch in the air, summer though it was. A cock pheasant



