94 The South Australian Naturalist. 



Black Cap. — This name, in allusion of course, to the color 

 of the head, was given to several species of birds. The one 

 he heard it most usually applied to, and appropriately so, was 

 the orange-winged tree runner. He thought this bird had 

 decreased in numbers. 



Diamond Bird. — This bird was often called the Diamond 

 Sparrow. It was not numerous near the suburbs of the city, 

 but was plentiful enough further out, and is often kept in cap- 

 tivity. 



Pe^vter. — This name was applied by boys to a small green 

 bird sometimes seen amongst the lower limbs of the gum 

 trees. It was the smallest bird he could remember having 



seen. 



Tree Creeper. — This, the nearest approach to the wood- 

 pecker in Australia, was at one time fairly numerous in any 

 of the suburbs, even near the city, where some of the native 

 trees still remained. 



Geneml.- — At the time he referred to all the tract which is 

 Tiow Malvern had been cleared and was annually cropped for 

 hay. A hedge of acacia (Acacia armata) occupied both sides 

 of the road from Glen Osmond to the XJnley 'RohS. and part of 



the Unley Road running south from Unley to Mitcham, and 

 many birds nested in it. The land between Malvern and Ful- 

 larton, and south of Malvern, was generally only grazed over, 

 and any ground birds in it were seldom disturbed. He had 

 heard plover near where the Unley Town Hall now is. It is 

 to be feared this bird is suffering terribly at the hands of that 

 wretched pest, the fox. 



The Crow and the Starling. — These were two birds about 

 which doctors differed. He had written to a friend near 

 Lyndoch, who was a life-long student of birds. At his home 

 they both reared lambs and had a vineyard. He said re 

 crows: '*I seldom go out of my way to shoot one. We have 

 the smaller variety here, and as a rule not in great numbers, 

 they live mostly as scavengers, and it is very rarely they kill 

 lambs, though they will attack lambs and even sheep that are 

 down and unable to rise, but as a rule these animals would die 

 in any case. They may eat a little fruit, but are easily fright- 

 ened and they are great destroyers of the blowfly. " As to star- 

 lings he said: *'I am an anti-starling man," and stated that he 

 had found them very destructive to almost all kinds of fruit, es- 

 pecially grapes. On many occasions he had seen as much as 

 an acre stripped of every berry. 



