on birds in the Melbourne Zoological Gardens. 187


dark at the end; but the adults have the beak and eyes bright

yellow and the legs whitish-yellow. These birds are not content

with changing the colour of their feathers only. Again, in many of

the Albatrosses the beak is almost black in the young birds, but

changes to whitish later. The Straw-necked Ibis (Carphibis spini-

collis), when young, has the top of his head covered with small

blackish feathers, but in about three or four years these are all

moulted, and the bare black skin shows instead ; light-coloured lines

appear later across the top of the head, and give the appearance of

cracks in the skin.


In the flight aviary a pair of Yellow-breasted Shrike-Robins

(Eopsaltria australis ) live in company with the Honey-eaters, but

woe betide any other bird of the former species that may be put in ;

the male Robin dashes at it at once, and the newcomer is usually

soon killed. The Yellow-breasted Shrike-Robin is far more pugnacious

than the Honey-eaters, frequently driving them away from their

feeding dishes. The Honey-eaters do not seem to treat newcomers

so harshly, but they are bad enough. Wood-Swallows (Artamus

sordidus ), Blue Wren-Wai’blers {Malurus), and White-browed

Scrub-Wrens ( Sericornis frontalis ) live peaceably, possibly because

they have plenty of room and cover. Most of these birds object to

strong wind, and are usually to be found on the sheltered side of

the aviary. In hot weather they are all very fond of bathing, and

fly to and fro through the fine spray of the fountain, or else sit on a

branch where the water can fall on them, and become nearly

drenched.


When the Gardens were first formed, more than fifty years

ago, Nankeen Night-Herons (Nycticorax caledonicus ) used to camp

during the day in the large eucalyptus trees ( E . rubra), and they

and their descendants have continued to do so ever since. The

birds probably breed in the tall trees on the Murray swamps in

New South Wales, therefore during the nesting season only the

young birds of the last season are here, and the young males have

not got their adult plumage. Directly the Garden bell rings, and

the visitors depart, these birds fly down to the Gull and 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



