^i^i'je] Keartland, Bird Life on Fraser Island. 43 



shooting a couple of them that I discovered the presence of 

 so many birds. As soon as the gun was fired a number of 

 White-fronted Herons flew from the timber, uttering a loud, 

 croaking note as if warning all their feathered friends to beware 

 of the man with the gun. On visiting the trees from which 

 they had gone I was surprised to find a number of their nests. 

 So, putting the gun away, I determined to take an orni- 

 thological census of the island. In the milking shed the 

 Welcome Swallow, Hirundo neoxena, was building its nest and 

 lining it with white feathers from the fowl-yard. Fairy Martins, 

 Lagenoplastes ariel, were busy dashing backwards and forwards 

 in pursuit of flies, mosquitoes, and moths, whilst Tree -Swallows, 

 Petrochelidon nigricans, had taken possession of a number of 

 hollow branches in the vicinity. They had evidently fore- 

 stalled the starlings in securing their nesting-places, as several 

 broods of young ones were noted. The two Banksia trees close 

 to the house are visited many times in the day by Brush 

 Wattle-birds, Acanthochcera mellivora, and the Red Wattle- 

 bird, A. caruncidata, and between their visits the Yellow-eared 

 {Ptilotis chrysops) and White -plumed (P. penicillata) Honey- 

 eaters feasted on the nectar of the blossoms, whilst the notes 

 of the Striated Pardalote, Pardalotus ornatiis, resounded from 

 the eucalypts on the flat. 



The well-known Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike, Graucalus 

 melanops, seemed quite at home in the orchard and garden, 

 where he appeared to find sufficient caterpillars and other 

 insects to satisfy his wants. Near the coast I was surprised to 

 find our well-known Ground-Lark, Anthus mtstralis, fairly 

 plentiful, whilst it was absent from the newly-cultivated land. 

 On walking along the tram line a White-fronted Chat, 

 Ephthiamira albifrons, fluttered along the grass as if wing and 

 leg were broken. The trick was soon played out, as the bird 

 flew away when followed, but came back when its nest, con- 

 taining three young ones, was found under a thistle. In the 

 early morning the notes of five species of cuckoos were heard. 

 First, the long-drawn, mournful cry of the Pallid Cuckoo, 

 Cuculus pallidus, followed by that of the Brush Cuckoo, 

 Cacomantis variolosits ; then the Fan -tailed Cuckoo, C 

 fiahelliformis, perched on the fence. A pair of Blue Wrens, 

 Malurus cyaneus, resented the attempts of a Narrow-billed 

 Bronze-Cuckoo, Chalcococcyx hasalis, to foist its egg upon them 

 to hatch and rear its young at the expense of their own brood. 

 A solitary Bronze-Cuckoo, C. plagosus, was also busy seeking 

 a foster-parent for its offspring. A pair of Black-and- White 

 Fantails, Rhipidura tricolor, seemed to be on the best of terms 

 with the Kerry bull, as they alternately hopped round his nose 

 to catch the insects disturbed from the grass, or fluttered over 



