The Sheep-Fluke. 



21 



The mess-tent, departmental camp, 

 Bong Bong-. 



interesting study, still it sinks into insignificance when compared with the 



careful investigation o£ the history and habits of the commonest birds. 



The slightest trait of a very common" bird is worth much more study than the 



whole plumage and anatomy 



of many of the rare specimens 



on the possession and descrip- 

 tion of which ornithologists 



so often pride themselves. 



To teach the people to take 



a genuine and intelligent 



interest in the most common 



birds is certainly a useful and 



dignified calling, and at the 



same time a scientific one ; 



indeed the single examination 



into the food-habits of a bird 



demands a high degree of 



acumen and a wide knowledge 



of biology, especially of mor- 

 phology. The exact nature 

 of a wild bird's food can be 

 best discovered by searching 

 a large number of their 



stomachs during various seasons in various localities, and anyone who has 

 attempted to identify the half-digested food-remnants found in such a search 

 will readily agree to my high estimate of the ability required in studying the 

 food-habits of birds. To be able to say at once to what species of beetle this 

 elytron belongs, to what plant these are the seeds, to what caterpillar this 

 head belongs ; to be able to say not only whether this half-digested bone 

 belongs to a fish, bird, reptile, or small mammal, but what fish, what bird, 

 what reptile, what mammal, requires scientific ability of no common order; 

 and yet even this is only the beginning of the research — the A B C of the 

 matter. 



Appealing to ornithologists to give more of their attention to the habits 

 of our commonest birds is, of course, asking them to grapple with a much 

 more difficult task than counting spots and measuring wings, but would they 

 not find their reward in the superior value of the results, whether considered 

 economically or in a pure scientific spirit, as well as in the keen interest that 

 would be almost universally taken in such researches ? 



The Australian naturalist who first goes into the bush animated with the 

 ambition to completely portray our common birds in common language — to 

 enter into their humours and to understand their characters, to emulate in a 

 more modern form White, Burroughs, Brehm — will reap a rich harvest 

 if he bring to his task the requisite ability. But we must return to our 

 subject. 



The heavy, ungainly flight of the Pee-wee proclaims the air to be not his 

 favourite element. Flap, flap, flap, he laboriously moves along, strikingly in 

 contrast with the graceful arrowy movement of the magpie, particularly as 

 he moves his rounded wings at right angles to his line of flight, while the 

 magpie seems almost to be leaving the tips of his wings behind him. 



On his feet, however, the Pee-wee is completely at home, and his walk, 

 whether on the grouud or along the limb of a tree, is sprightly and vivacious, 

 displaying a somewhat self-confident elegance, that makes up for his slow 

 and awkward flight, I have observed that in walking his head has something 



