Vol. IV. 

 1904 



From Magazines y &c. 7 9 



the autumn was a very dry one, and little rain fell until June. 

 The grubs did a lot of damage ; but they were hardly at work 

 before large flocks of the well-known Straw-necked Ibis came 

 along, from the north, and commenced a strong attack on them. 

 As the autumn wore on, the ffocks increased both in number 

 and size, until, in a single paddock, there would be some thousands 

 of the birds at work. As the Ibis is a big bird, he consumes a 

 huge quantity of grubs, and he seems to feed pretty well all day. 

 At that time, driving anywhere along the roads through the 

 grub-infested districts, huge flocks of Ibises could be seen covering 

 two or three acres at a time — one solid regiment of birds, all 

 diligently plunging their long bills into the soft earth. At sun- 

 down they furnished a very pretty spectacle as they flew, in 

 immense flocks, up into the timbered country, where they roosted. 

 The writer one evening counted seven huge flocks in the air 

 at once. Although big and rather ungainly birds, the Ibises 

 can fly splendidly, and when they get up from their feeding- 

 grounds they rise several hundred feet into the air before they 

 set out for their destination. They fly in long — and usually 

 double — strings, shaped like a V, with the point in the direction 

 they are flying. But the flocks are so huge and unwieldy that 

 it is rarely that the V formation is properly kept. Sometimes 

 there is an undulating single string stretching out for hundreds 

 of yards. At first the grazier welcomed the Ibis, and guarded 

 him almost as jealously as the ancient Egyptians used to protect 

 their Sacred Ibis. But it was found that the birds tore the 

 ground about so much searching for the grubs that it was 

 doubtful whether the cure was not as bad as the disease. Last 

 year the grubs were not so bad, and the rains came early, with 

 the result that very few Ibises arrived, although there are still 

 a few grubs about. Whether by some instinct the Ibises have got 

 to know that there is nothing much for them down here, or 

 whether, owing to better seasons, they have now good feeding 

 grounds further north, is an open question. — " F.R.," The 



AustralasicDi, 6/8/04. 



* * * 



The Brush Bronze-wing Pigeon. — Mr. D. Seth-Smith, 

 F.Z.S., in notes on the habits in captivity of some speci- 

 mens of these birds {Aviadtural Magazine, May, 1904) 

 gives what he calls " the miserable history of, possibly, the 

 first young Brush Bronze-wing Pigeon hatched in England." 

 Three birds were procured in January last, and placed in a 

 warmed aviary. " High up in this aviary were some large 

 bundles of brushwood, securely fastened to the walls and roof, 

 and on these the Bronze-wings commenced to build a nest in 

 earnest within two or three days of their arrival from a London 

 dealer's shop. x'\ll three seemed to be building the nest together 

 at first." One cock seeming the more favoured bird, the other 

 was removed. " Nest-building now went on in earnest, the 

 hen remaining aloft while the cock fetched twig after twig. I 



