286 Revieiv. [ist^june 



which way — which way — which way you go ! ' ' Get your whip ! ' ' Get your 

 whip!' ' You go !' 'You go ! ' ' None of your cheek !' ' None of your cheek !' 

 'Here — here ! ' And darts out with a fluster from among the hibiscus bushes 

 on the beach away up to the top of the melaleuca-tree ; pauses to sample the 

 honey from the yellow flowers of the gin-gee, and down to the scarlet 

 blooms of the flame-tree, across the pandanus palms and to the shady creek 

 for his morning bath and drink, shouting without ceasing his orders and 

 observations. He is always with us, though not always as noisy as in the 

 prime of the year — a cheerful, prying, frisky creature, always going some- 

 where or doing something in a red-hot hurry, and always making a song of 

 it — a veritable babbler. His love-making is passionate and impulsive, 

 joyous almost to rowdyism." 



Under the title of " The Nestful Tree " we read : — 



" Here in the Moi-eton Bay ash, taken advantage of by the Shining 

 Calornis (C iiictallica), a white-headed, rufous-backed Sea-Eagle {Hah'ai'tus 

 girrenera) nests, and the graceful, fierc^e-looking pair comes and goes 

 among the glittering, noisy throng without exciting any special comment. 

 Of course, it would be impossible to detect any certain note of remon- 

 strance, for the smaller birds are generally commenting on something or 

 other in acidulous tones. 



" Another occupant of this nestful tree is the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo 

 {Cacatiia galcriid) whose eggs are laid deep down in a hollow. Two or three 

 hundred of the Shining Starlings, a brood of Sea-Eagles, white-headed, 

 snowy-breasted, and red-backed, and a couple, perhaps three, screeching 

 White Cockatoos, represent the annual output of this single tree, in 

 addition, of course, to its own crop of sweet-savoured flowers (on which 

 birds, bees, beetles and butterflies, and flying-foxes feast) and seeds in 

 thousands in cunning cups." 



More about the Red-backed Sea-Eagle : — 



" Two days of rough weather, and the blue bay had become discoloured 

 with mud churned up by the sea, and the Eagle found fishing poor and 

 unremunerative sport. Even his keen eyesight could not distinguish in 

 the murky water the coming and going of the fish. Just below the house is 

 a small area of partly cleared flat, and there we saw the brave fellow 

 roaming and scooping about with more than usual interest in the affairs of 

 dry land. At this time of year green snakes are fairly plentiful. Harmless 

 and handsome, they prey upon small birds and frogs, and the Eagle had 

 abandoned his patrol of the sad-hued water to take toll of the snakes. 

 After a graceful swoop down to the tips of a low-growing bush, he alighted 

 on the dead branch of a bloodwood (eucalypt), 1 50 yards or so away, and, 

 with the help of a telescope, his occupation was revealed— he was greedily 

 tearing to pieces a wriggling snake, gulping it in three-quarter-yard lengths. 

 Here was the reason for the trustfulness and respect of the little birds. The 

 Eagle was destroying the chief bugbear of their existence — the sneaking 

 greeny-yellowy murderer of their kind and eater of their eggs, whose colour 

 and form so harmonizes with leaves and thin branches that he constantly 

 evades the sharpest-eyed of them all, and squeezes out their lives and 

 swallows them whole. But the big red detective could see the vile thing 

 50 and even 100 yards away, and once seen — well, one enemy the less. 

 Briskly stropping his beak on the branch of the tree on which he rested, 

 and setting his breast plumage in order, much as one might shake a crumb 

 from his waistcoat, the Eagle adjusted his search-lights and sat motionless. 

 In five minutes a slight jerk of the neck indicated a successful observation, 

 and he soared out, wheeled like a flash, and, half turning on his side, 

 hustled down in the foliage of a tall wattle {Acacia) and back again to his 

 perch. Another snake was crumpled up in his talons, and he devoured it 

 in writhing, twirling pieces. The telescope gave unique advantage during 

 this entertainment, one of the tragedies of Nature, or rather the lawful 



