44 



'BIRD NOTES 

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



During a recent visit to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area near Yanco, while going round with Mr. 

 Houston, 1 noticed the workmen busy altering the spaces between the wires on the electric lighting 

 standards. On inquiry, he informed me thai all this extra work had to be undertaken on account 

 of the Galahs, Cacatua roseicapilla, Vieill., having taken to roosting on the wires at nightfall, and 

 when a hundred or more of these ( 01 katoos plumped down on the wire they weighed it down until it 

 came in contact with the lower wire, and all the lights went out. Birds are occasionally killed by 

 the current. 



These Cockatoos frequently collect in immense flocks, and when the Irrigation Area becomes well 

 known to the " bird world beyond " it is very probable that the Galahs will become a serious pest to 

 be dealt with by the fanners growing field crops. The electrical engineer is proposing to lit up and 

 elei 1nl\ some large dead pine trees where they congregate, if they are likeh 1m bei nine a greater pest 

 than at present. 



The Brush Turkey. Catheturus lathami, Lath. In my notes upon this bird, published in the 

 Agricultural Gazette id New South Wales, 1 and reproduced in tin Public Instruction Gazette,- I 

 stated that the young chick 51 rati hi 3 its way up to the surface ol the mound without any assistani e 

 from the parent buds. I had not had any personal experience of this mound builder, but consulted 

 all the best and latest authorities on the matter when writing it up. Gould, one of the first to record 

 his observations on our mound building Megapodes, who obtained much of Ins information from 

 the blackfellows he employed, says " Some ol the natives state that Hie females are constantly in 

 the neighbourhood ol the mound about the time the young are likeh to be hatched, and frequently 

 uncovei and cover them up again, apparentlj for the purpose of assisting those that may have 

 appeared , while others have informed me thai the eggs are merely deposited, and the young allowed 

 to force their way unassisted.", Mr. 1). Le Souef, Director of the Melbourne Zoological Gardens, 

 who has bred a number in captivity, in several reports states thai in every ease the young Brush 

 Turkeys made their way up to He in ace and escaped from the mound without any assist, in 

 In the "Birds ol Australia" the statement is made without any reservation that " The young, when 

 liiti In :d, make their own way out. can fly a.t once, and lead an independent existence. "4 



During a visit to the Solomon Islands, while stopping at a plantation in the Russell Group, the 

 manager placed some eggs of the Megapode in the kitchen the previous evening, and was surprised 

 on opening the doot in the early morning to see a young Megapode llv out and make good his esi ape 

 into the surrounding scrub. 



The following interesting letter received by me from Mr. \Y. J. Bate, of Homestead Public 

 School, near Ten terfield, New South Wales, should prove of interest as recording actual observations 

 on the habits of the Brush Turkey : 



" As a schoolboy in Lismore I read the story of the ' Brush Turkey ' in our Reading Look and 

 of course, marvelled at the strange method of hatching and at the manner 111 which the baby birds 

 escaped from the ' incubator.' Turkeys were then very plentiful in the ' Big Scrub,' and, latei on 

 I had a good opportunity of observing them and other birds. But the more I saw of the nests ol 



1. Froggatt — Agricultural Gazette, N.S. Wales,- xxv, Sept., 1914, p. ; 12 



-. Froggatt — Public Instruction Gazette, (N.S.Wales) Supplement, October, 1014. 



3. Gould — Handbook to the Birds o! Australia, ii, 1805, p. 152, 



4. Lucas & Le Souef — The Birds ol Australia, 191 1, p. 14. 



