218 Mr. 1-t. Hall on the Birds 



XV. — The Birds of a Garden in Melbourne. 

 By Robert Hall, C.M.Z.S. 



A garden in Melbourne has in many respects a phase of 

 bird-life quite its own, while this is, of course, only a f ragrneut 

 of the ornis of Australia. I have selected the grounds in 

 which my home has been for many years for the following 

 notes. To me the locality is full of life, and so rich in 

 birds is the area within a radius of five miles that no less 

 than one hundred and eighteen species have been put upon 

 record as its inhabitants. In the Surrey Hills, near Mel- 

 bourne, we have learned to look for the birds which come to 

 visit us in the different seasons, each in its order, aud if 

 certain of them did not nest every year in our acacias and 

 eucalypti, we should look upon them as lost to us altogether. 



One Magpie (Gymnorhina), for instance, an old friend 

 with a broken leg, regularly renews its nest every year, 

 doing so this season for the fifth time. A Welcome Swallow 

 {Hirundo frontalis) is so constant to its homestead that a 

 neighbour tells me that this is the sixteenth year since the 

 first nest was carefully built in the recesses of a certain 

 old " gum "-bole. We much appreciate such loyalty. 



With us one of the most prominent callers that act as 

 harbingers of spring is the Pallid Cuckoo (Cuculus pallidus). 

 No sooner has it arrived than it perches upon the topmost 

 dead bough of the highest tree, and peals forth a series of 

 notes ranging through an octave (no twofold shout !). The 

 joy of the spring here depends much upon the music of the 

 birds. That glory of the summer, the Superb Warbler 

 (Malurus superbus), is about to put on its mantle of enamelled 

 blue, and now cheerily and impetuously rushes about, first 

 here, then there, among the wild shrubs and herbs. This 

 is indeed the season of greatest bliss, and those persons who 

 can find time to go occasionally into the adjacent woods, 

 before leaving for the city, share in an unmeasurable joy. 

 Here is one of the birds which should be sacred to every 

 tiller of the soil, for experiments have shown us that a single 

 individual will devour in one day eighty larvae of a kind 



