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Australasian Lories and Parrakeets.



where it spent a considerable time hunting its insect prey in the

upper air.


The Sea Curlew followed it in its annual migrations; so did

the Snipe ; both speedy birds and good stayers. This Curlew and its

lonely cry we knew little about inland, as it never left the coast;

but the Snipe came to our swamps in gladdening flocks, to mingle

with the Bed-necked Avocet and the Stilts and other marsh-haunters

that never left us. The Eagle has been credited with a speed of

140 miles an hour. Mulyan, our lordly Wedge-tail, graceful as he

was when circling on outstretched pinions, and wonderfully smart

at catching pieces of meat we threw into the air, never dazzled us

with his velocity in a straight flight from one horizon to the other.

He had a great wing spread, commonly over 7 ft., and occasionally

reaching nearly 9 ft., and he was a stayer, hut in a sprint he was no

match for the Crey Falcon. We had many kinds of predaceous birds

constantly with us, and the Crey Falcon was the swiftest of them

all. Still, he coxdd not catch the Jerriang in a sprint across the

bight, which was about a mile wide. In a long race the Falcon

would win ; so could the Little Falcon, a grevish-hlack bird, with

buff throat and white forehead, which many judges considered the

swiftest of all birds of prey. The latter, when in pursuit of a Hying

Duck, and especially when it was a little above its quarry, a position

it always manoeuvred to get, could travel at a terrific pace. It

struck with the edge of its wing with such force as often to kill the

Duck instantly, and at times even to strike the head clean off. It

was capable of overtaking and killing such a strong-winged bird as

the Sea Curlew. The handsome Black-cheeked Falcon was another

speedy member of this group and the equivalent of the European

Peregrine, the speed of which has been computed at 150 miles an

hour.


(To be continued.)



AUSTRALASIAN LORIES AND PARRAKEETS.


By T. Hebb.


I saw my New Guinea Lories at Derry and Toms', and they

looked such beautiful birds that I paid a long price for them, never



