94 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



all duly numbered and subdivided, that it is unlawful to 

 kill many Queensland birds ; and the pains and penalties 

 for disregard thereof, are they not set out in terrifying 

 array ? But who cares ? Take, for an example, the lovely 

 Gouldian finch. The law makes it an offence to kill the 

 birds, or to take their eggs, or to have them in possession 

 dead or alive. Yet trappers go out into the habitation of 

 the bird and snare them by the thousand. Fifty thousand 

 pairs have been sent away in a single season. Not one- 

 tenth of those which twitter so faintly and yet so sweetly 

 to their tiny loves of their own land and their erstwhile 

 freedom, ever live to be gloated over, because of their fatal 

 gift of beauty, in London or on the Continent. 



A CENSUS 



While this census ignores several birds of the island as to 

 the identity of which doubt exists in the mind of the com- 

 piler, it acknowledges the presence of all permanent resi- 

 dents familiar to him, as well as casual visitors, and those 

 which stay for a few hours or days, as the case may be, for 

 rest or refreshment during migratory flights. Chastened 

 by the half-averted face of irresponsive science, the glowing 

 desire to inflate the list gave way to the crisper sort of satis- 

 faction which is like the joy that cometh in the morning. 



BIRDS OF PREY 



White Goshawk - - Asttir (Leucospiza) novtz- 



hollandics. 



Goshawk - - Astur approximans. 



Sparrow-Hawk - - Accipiter cirrhocephalus, 



Wedge-tailed Eagle - - Uroaetus (Aquild) audax. 



White-bellied Sea-Eagle - Halitztus leucogaster. 



White-headed Sea-Eagle - Haliastur girrenera. 



Kite - - Milvus affinis. '* 



Black-shouldered Kite - - Elanus axillaris. 



Black-cheeked Falcon - - Falco melanogenys. 



Grey Falcon - Falco hypolcucus. 



Black Falcon - Falco subniger. 



Kestrel - Cerehneis (Tinnunculus) cen- 



chroides. 



