Birds of Neiv South Wales I have caught ancl kept. 373


thorny bush of the Acacia species, called by the children “cock-

spurs ” Here the old cock bird would sit on the highest branch,

singing his song of love and delight, perhaps to call to straggling

members of his family to come home. If you discover their roost¬

ing place it is then no trouble to catch father, mother and their

feathery children. A remarkable observation I made on several

occasions with this species is that the wrens love to resort to clear¬

ings where the scrub has been felled and lies to be burnt off. I have

seen the Blues, Lamberts and Beds all mixed up in one Hock of say

two-three dozen and watched them through the glass for some time.

Going near them, they immediately separated into their respective

families. The Blues remained in the low bushes near, the Lamberts

fled up the hill and the Bed-backed ones towards the creek. All

wrens build low into the long grass or low bushes and a great

number of young are thereby destroyed by ants alone. I may

perhaps some later day relate some of the tragedies in bird-life

through ants and other causes which I witnessed in the bush.


Another lovely Wren—though not so gorgeous — is the Emu

Wren, with its scraggy tail like “Ospreys” sticking up (and also

the Striated Wren > but both these species I only kept for a short

time, as they are very hard to get and then very hard to keep

going. A bird resembling the Pied Wagtail of the Continent is

the White-fronted Chat ( Epethianura) commonly called “ Binglet,”

.a great favourite of mine, almost like a double-barred finch, only

with one bar only and the creamy white of the finch replaced by

pure milk white. Their walk is so graceful and dainty that I placed

them among the elite in my aviaries. They inhabit the swampy

places about Sydney and respond readily to artificial feeding,

whereas the Orange-fronted Chat from the West I never succeeded

in bringing alive as far as Sydney. I have never seen the European

Bee-eaters, but I should say by their description that there is little

difference from ours ( Merops omatus ). Taking a boat at Penrith,

about 40 miles from Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains and

rowing down the Nepean river, one sees these lovely birds sitting

high up an overhanging branch. Once in a way, when an insect

appears and is seen, they will swoop down and catch it, returning

with a graceful glide to the place they vacated, seldom will they fly



