344



on Bird Life on Yanko Creek, N.S.W.



shell-paroqueet, would pay us a visit; and I recollect, in the middle

of the summer, 1854, our gum-trees swarmed with them. They

stayed about a month, when they suddenly disappeared, and only

an odd straggler or so has been seen in our district.” On the

Riverina plains, in a good season, thousands of budgerigars are cap¬

tured by the trappers, and the market is glutted, with the result that

the birds realize only a few pence apiece. I am a staunch advocate

of bird protection, but I cannot truthfully say that trapping has any

appreciable effects on either Galahs or Warbling Grass-Parrots.

With regard to the former species, my friend declared that they

were even more numerous in 1913 than they were several years

before. But we should be watchful, for some birds that are now extinct

—the Great Auk and the Passenger Pigeon, for instance—formerly

existed in great numbers.


After returning to Jerilderie, I spent a day with Mr. Egger,

hunting for a nest of the Australian Dotterel (Eudromis australis).

The place where we searched is not far from the town—a desolate

area, with scanty vegetation. There are large barren patches of

greyish-white soil, surrounded by beds of star thistle and other lowly

plants. Signs of the birds were seen, and more than once we felt

sure that a nest would soon reward our patient patrolling; but

always came disappointment. My friend had secured two clutches

of eggs from this locality. One was discovered by a boundary rider

who saw the Dotterell go to her nest. The birds are extremely wary,

and nests are most difficult to find.


Before bidding my friend farewell, I asked him to write a

paper for The Emu, and he promised to do so when he had leisure.

But death intervened, and we have lost a very valuable contributor

to the knowledge of Riverina bird-life. Mr. Eggar was a true

naturalist, and no man has had a more genial and kindly companion

than I had in my Riverina rambles.



