Oct., 



1919 



] CuRRiE, The Birds of a Gippsland Garden. ^y 



That handsome bird, the Crimson Parrot, Platycercus elegans, 

 known also as Pennant's Parrakeet and Red Lory, sits upon 

 the wheat-stack all day long, one now and again falling a victim 

 to the cat. The red-plumaged (adult) birds are far more wary 

 than the younger green-plumaged ones, and fly across in 

 numbers. In the garden the Gang-Gang Cockatoos, Callo- 

 cephalon galeatum, come and search for acacia seeds and 

 bright berries, and later in the year share with the Spotted 

 Bower-Birds, Chlamydera maculata, the holly berries. 



A flock of White-eyes, Zosterops coerulescens, remember us 

 while the mulberries and sweet plums are ripening. White- 

 browed Wood-Swallows, Artamus super ciliosits, or Summer- 

 birds, are at home round a small spinney, and Starlings attend 

 to the grasshopper pest, while Crows occasionally fly over at 

 this season. A Rufous Flycatcher, Rhipidura rufifrons, paid 

 us a visit also, but was very shy. 



While the flax is being loaded a Kookaburra, Dacelo gigas, 

 or Great Brown Kingfisher, balances himself on an extra fork 

 handle, and swoops down from time to time when he sees a 

 mouse, never faihng to secure it. In the bush alongside 

 Thickheads, Pachycephala nifwentris, and Tree-creepers, 

 Climaderis picumna (brown) and C. scandens (White-throated), 

 are to be seen, sometimes even on the posts supporting the 

 barn. 



The Bronzewing Pigeon, Phaps chalcoptera, is also (though 

 rarely) a visitor to the garden, where it searches for wattle 

 seeds. We know its haunt, which is on our way to the swamp, 

 not more than ten minutes' walk away, where there is a colony 

 of Emu- Wrens, Stipiturus malachurus, numbering about twenty 

 — such dear little birds, with such ridiculously long tail 

 feathers. From there we go on to see the White-fronted 

 Heron, otherwise Blue Crane, Notophoyx novce-hoUandicB, of 

 which, during last February and March, there were ten to be 

 seen. 



We have been delighted to have all these birds about us at 

 one time. Soon some will leave us, while others — the Robins, 

 the Bower-birds, and the Gang-Gangs — will come and steal the 

 holly berries ; but all are sure of a welcome and protection in 

 this sanctuar}^ of a Gippsland bush garden. 



Miss C. C. Currie, being a country member of the Club, and 

 unable to be present at many ordinary meetings, was afforded 

 the opportunity of replying to the criticism on her paper as 

 recorded on pages 66-67 o^ the September Nahiralist. She 

 writes : — 



"I would like to say, in reply to the criticism on my paper 



