An Old Australian Bird-lover—-Breeding of tntj Kagus 241



their eyes—those of the male possess an additional brownish-orange

ring which the female lacks. (With the Mopokes it is the same.) The

bill of the old Kagus is of a dirty orange colour, and very long, sharp,

and powerful. In hunting for their food they have a habit of tapping

the ground with their foot to make sure by sound or touch—it would

be interesting to know which—where the worm really is, and then

unerringly penetrate this spot in the ground to 3 or 4 inches to extract

the worm.


The first day after hatching no food whatever was taken, but I

noticed that the male bird fed the chick in the cask on the second

day with what I took to be a very hard-skinned grub. I had given them

besides their larvae the run of my orchard, an area of about two acres,

so that plenty of natural food was assured ; but even so I fed them

with earth-worms and raw beef cut into narrow strips. On the third

day the chick left its nest—which, by the way, only consisted of a few

leaves—and came out to have a suit bath, afterwards running in again.

I feared for it the first few days as the weather was very cold and

changeable, but it never minded it in the least. From the second day

onward the baby emitted a peculiar whining noise, just like a Lyre

Bird. In feeding it the parent would dangle a worm or whatever it

had in front of its bill. The baby would then grab the bait and jerk

it in, feeding just like the parents. Often the young one would allow

the parent to wait four or five minutes and more before it was pleased

to take the food, the old bird all the time trying to coax it by making

a clucking sort of noise. Whenever the chick moved about, the mother

would follow it—quite unlike other baby birds, which seem to follow

their parents or come to their call—it seemed a real little tyrant.

After the chick was a week old it used to run in and out of the cask,

often going right away from it, the old birds then feeding it on raw

beef, snails, worms, and grubs. It had grown well and seemed to

thrive rapidly. It was just a fortnight old when one morning I could

not hear its whine. I thought a bush-rat might have taken it, but

looking into the cask I saw it there. Taking it out it breathed its last

in my hand. Sadly I looked down on its little body, which had given

me such pleasure and created so much interest. It is now in the Sydney

Museum, where in dissecting it we found that the parents had fed it with



