64 BUSH DAYS 



Queensland. The smaller birds, such as the native canary, 

 the caterpillar-eater, and some of the fly-catchers, which arrive 

 here in August and September, go north again during March 

 and April, to spend their winter in North Queensland, but they 

 do not leave the continent. At the same time go the bee- 

 eaters, which build so freely along the banks of the Xepean all 

 summer, and the dollar-birds. These both go further north, 

 spending their winter in New Guinea, Molucca, the Celebes, 

 and thereabouts. 



Other regular spring visitors are the cuckoos. With the 

 first bright days of August and September comes the rollicking 

 note of the pallid cuckoo, and the sad wail of his cousin, the 

 fantail cuckoo, both having just arrived from North Queens- 

 land. At the same time, from further north Timor, and New- 

 Guinea come the two little bronze cuckoos, whose woefully 

 plaintive voices are heard night and day throughout the 

 country; and the brush cuckoo, a shy fellow, who frequents 

 the brush country, and fills the gullies with his almost 

 hysterical whistle. From the same region comes the koel, 

 also a dweller in the brush, where he utters his loud 

 monotonous note day and night. By the middle of April all 

 the cuckoos have departed for their northern homes, except a 

 few lone birds that occasionally seem to be left behind, and 

 sadly bewail their fate the winter through. 



In direct contrast to the lugubrious cuckoos is the reed- 

 warbler, one of the most delightful of our summer birds, which 



