BIRD NOTES FROM THE NORTH-WEST OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



By WALTER W. FROGGATT, F.L.S., Government Entomologist. 



While engaged in my official work in the Brewarrina district during the last six months, I 

 have had many opportunities of observing the habits of the birds and animals on the Salt-bush 

 plains, and along the banks of the Barwon River. Galahs, Cacatua rosiecapella, are very plentiful 

 all over the open forest and scrub country, and as no one ever shoots them, they are remarkably 

 tame. When they are feeding upon the berries which fall in large quantities from the Loian- 

 thus bushes, parasitic on the Bolar trees. Casnarina sp., we can often walk up to within ten yards 

 of a flock of them before they take flight. Sometimes a flock of fifty or more will camp for the 

 night in the trees close by our tents. They have a curious way of talking or grumbling to them- 

 selves in a low tone, often for an hour or more, before they go to sleep. 



When they come to slake their thirst at the waterholes, which, in the hot summer days, they 

 do at about noon and just before sunset, they are very fond of alighting on any post or stump 

 that may be in the water. They crawl down it to drink, and look very comical when half a 

 dozen together are all "standing on their heads." 



Galahs nest in hollow trees, which are generally well grown gums in the billabongs and gil- 

 gies. In Lucas and Le Souef's "Birds of Australia," the authors say they "generally peel the 

 bark off the branch just under the nesting h .le. which makes the site conspicuous." Now, 

 though there must be thousands of nesting holes all over our district, I have only noted half a 

 dozen of these barked tree stems. In these cases they were bent or curved limbs, and the bark 

 was stripped off an area a foot wide and two feet long, just below the openings leading into the 

 nests; the branch was never ring-barked right round. Under a freshly-barked branch the fine 

 strings or shavings formed a regular heap. The bushman say the birds strip off the bark to 

 make the stem so smooth that the goanas or monitor lizards, cannot climb round the stem to rob 

 the nest. As these lizards are not very plentiful in this scrub country, it is probable that the 

 galahs only resort to this method of protecting their nesting places when they actually find them 

 in their localities. 



During the last two months, March and April. 1914, good falls of rain have brought on plenty 

 of fresh grass and green herbage all over the north-west country along the Barwon River, and 

 into southern Queensland. South of Byrock, on to Bourkc, and southwards, dry conditions still 

 prevail, and there is little or no green feed. Through some wonderful instinct, or wireless tele- 

 graphy of the bird-world, the emus of the south west have learnt of the good times prevailing 

 farther up, so they are gathering together and trekking northward. While travelling on the 

 train between Nyngan and Byrock, on March 30th, 1 counted seventy-five emus in small flocks 

 of four to thirty, all making in the one direction across the line. On my return a week later, I 

 saw eighty more going the same way, and getting through the railway fences on their journey. 

 On making enquiries, several station owners informed me that there was a regular movement of 

 the emus over a very large area south of the railway line. 



The very interesting and friendly Apostle Birds, Stmthidca cinerea, are known under a num- 

 ber of popular names, but none fits them so well, 1 think, as that of the Happy Family, bestowed 

 upon them by bushmen. One of their names, Grey Jumpers, is most misleading for they are cer- 

 tainly not grey, and they do not jump. There is hardly a waterhole or tank we visit where we do 

 not find them in possession, their number varying from five to fifteen, and at our camp there is 

 a family of nine which adopted us as soon as our tents were in position. They are often away 

 during the day, but they invariably return before sunset, and they have learnt to know our meal 

 hours, and come around the dining tent. Though they will not as yet take food out of our hands, 

 they r come to within a foot of us to pick up bread and scraps, which they generally carry 

 off a few yards before eating. They found where our bags of horse-feed were stored under a 

 shed, and picked holes through them to get at the grain. Where some ant mounds had been fumi- 

 gated and dug up, they spent a profitable time for several days, scratching over the nest like a lot 

 of chickens, and eating the dead ants and pupae. 



Some time ago, in the height of the rabbit plague, the squatters wired in all the tanks and 

 water frontages, and set out poisoned water for the pests. All the birds which flew direct to the 

 tanks to drink escaped this death-dealing lure, but several species which had the precautionary 

 habit of alighting a short distance away walked to the poisoned water first, and so died. Among 

 those that suffered most were doves, bronze-wing pigeons, and happy families. All these, how- 

 ever, appear to have bred well since for they are now plentiful wherever there is water, in the 

 back country. 



