'^O Le Souef, Birds in Melbourne Zoological Gardens. [isf"}"!,- 



water-fowl enclosures, and hunt round for scraps of meat that 

 may be left ; they are very tame. In the Cairo Zoological Gardens 

 I noticed the same thing ; there the Nankeen Herons {N . griseus) 

 roost all day on the trees in the Gardens, and at night go to the 

 Nile swamps to feed. Our birds usually go to the low-lying 

 grounds and shallow water near West Melbourne ; they leave the 

 Zoo just at dusk. 



The graceful Pied Grallinas, which assemble in flocks during the 

 winter, come from the districts around Melbourne into the 

 Zoological Gardens in the evening to roost, about an hour before 

 the Herons leave. Two pairs of wild Grallinas have for years 

 nested in the Zoo, but each pair has its own restricted area. The 

 same applies to two pairs of White -backed Magpies {Gymnorhina 

 leuconota), except that these birds have a battle royal should one 

 pair seek to poach on the other's ground. On several occasions 

 pinioned Magpies were liberated in the Gardens, but they were 

 all attacked by wild birds sooner or later, as they unwittingly 

 trespassed on their area. They seemed to be frequently getting 

 on the prohibited ground of one pair or the other, and found it 

 a difificult matter when they were attacked by the wild birds. 

 As they could not fly away, they simply lay on their backs and 

 fought with beak and claws, often effectively. 



Three pairs of Black-and-White Fantails [Rhipidiira mota- 

 cilloides) nest in the Gardens, also many pairs of White-plumed 

 Honey-eaters, and these, also, each have their separate parts. 

 All these birds drive away their young as soon as they are able 

 to look after themselves : therefore our wild breeding stock never 

 increases. 



In the Gardens there is a Queensland Cassowary {Casuarius 

 australis), which, when about seven years old, laid two eggs. 

 Before that it had always been regarded as a male bird, but the 

 male and female are practically identical in appearance. The 

 same applies to the Emu, but the male Emu dtums and the female 

 makes a grunting noise, whereas Cassowaries are very silent birds, 

 and one cannot, therefore, easily identify the sexes by the sounds 

 uttered. 



Camera Craft Notes, 



Pardalotes Before the Camera. — We have obtained a large 

 number of photographs of the Red-tipped Pardalote (Pardalohts 

 striatus). There must be very few families of these birds from 

 Greensborough to Eltham and back to Preston, Victoria, which 

 do not remember some annoying experiences of bird-photography. 

 We have often found a pair nesting in the same place year after 

 year, and some of them must now associate cameras with nest- 

 building. 



Usually, when we have met with scant success elsewhere, we use 

 the latter part of the day at one of the Pardalotes' nests we 



