152 Leach, The Birds of Victoria. T 



Vict. Nat. 

 Dec. 



nest " is made of saliva and seaweed by a swift, and is occasion- 

 ally found in Queensland. 



The cuckoos form order nineteen — Coccyges. Few birds have 

 excited more interest than these. In England they have but 

 one cuckoo, whose call has been aptly described as the " most 

 imitable of bird calls." It is there the herald of spring, so it 

 receives a joyous welcome. Victorians, blessed with eight 

 cuckoos, still know much less about them. For one reason, 

 none calls " cuckoo," and, further, in our winterless clime there 

 is not the same glad welcome for spring as is felt in colder 

 climates. 



Our cuckoos are valuable insect and caterpillar destroyers, 

 and so deserve well of us, though all are parasites, and leave 

 their eggs and young to the tender mercies of foster-parents. 



Taking order twenty — Menuriformes — to itself is the wonder- 

 ful Lyre-bird, whose tail is recognized as the most beautiful 

 tail ornament worn by any bird. These birds are restricted to 

 the dense scrubs from Melbourne to Wide Bay, in Southern 

 Oueensland. They are apparently doomed. The fox has dis- 

 covered their large nests, built usually on the ground. We 

 hope to see the Lyre-bird put in the National Park at Wilson's 

 Promontory, where the fox is not common. It is one of the 

 best mocking birds in the world, and is fond of showing itself 

 off to the admiring mates as it dances on its dancing mound. 



In the last order— Passeriformes — the twenty-first, come the 

 perching birds. Over 150 of our Victorian birds belong to this 

 order. Many of these are the exact equivalent of birds found 

 in Europe ; others are peculiar to Australia. Thus, our 

 swallows and martins, Mountain-Thrush, Reed- Warbler, 

 Butcher-bird, Tree-runner, Tree-creeper, Ground-Lark (Pipit), 

 Oriole, Crow, and Raven are very closely allied to European 

 forms, while others, like the wood-swallows. Mistletoe-bird, and 

 Drongo are met with out to India. The most interesting, how- 

 ever, are confined to Australia. Thus, our glorious little Blue 

 Wrens are unrivalled. European ornithologists have called 

 them " Superb Warblers," and well they deserve the name. 

 Our robin redbreasts do not belong to the same familj' as the 

 English redbreast, but they are even more beautiful. Our 

 Magpie is unrivalled by any song-bird in Europe, as Alfred 

 Russel Wallace testifies. 



Only two can be mentioned among the peculiar Australian 

 birds of this order. These are honey-eaters .and bower-birds. 

 Just as our forest trees, such as eucalypts, honeysuckles, &c., 

 have brightly-coloured, honey-laden flowers and non-edible 

 fruits, so our birds show an absence of fruit-eaters, and an 

 abundance of honey-eating birds. Two groups of these birds 

 have a brush tongue to assist them in taking honey from these 



