Il8 THE WOMBAT. 



SOME CASTLEMAINE BIRD NOTES. 



By F. S. Billinghurst, 

 (President of the Castlemaine Field Ramblers' Club). 



Birds are plentiful round Castlemaine, too plentiful some 

 people say. Last summer the parrots were a perfect pest to 

 the orchardists, so were the sparrows. Last month (May, 

 1896) I made a start to investigate the ornithology of the 

 district and take a few notes, and having been asked to write 

 something for the " Wombat," it struck me that perhaps these 

 notes might be of some interest, although only those of a 

 novice. 



As I mentioned before, birds are plentiful here, and there- 

 seem to be a fair number of species. I shot specimens of 31 

 different birds, and saw a good many more during the month. 

 They range in size from Aquila andax, which soars round 

 Mount Alexander, to Acanthiza nana — dignity and impudence. 

 I may say I did not shoot the aquila, I only saw him, and a 

 fine sight it was too. Talking of acanthizas, the bush is full 

 of them. They go about in little flocks, and the flocks often 

 appear to consist of more than one species. They are so 

 much alike, that one really often cannot tell which is which 

 until they are shot, which is a nuisance, as I don't like killing 

 birds I don't want, and at the same time I wish to get a 

 specimen or two of every species. So far I have obtained 

 Acanthiza pusilla ; A. lineata ; A. nana; A. pyrrhopygia ; 

 Xerophila leucopsis ; Geobasileus chryssorhea and G. regxdoides. 



I have a large white gum tree in my back yard, which 

 flowered during the month, and attracted numerous honey-eaters,, 

 mostly Ptilotis auricomis, sometimes as many as twenty at a 

 time. Not so common is the P. fusca. Then there is P. 

 lencotis in the bush, which I have only seen singly or in pairs,, 

 also P. penicillata, the " dick " of the local youngsters, which 

 generally goes about in small flocks of four or five. Antho- 

 chczra cartmculata is very much in evidence with his harsh 

 note, they always come round the town in the winter. 

 Myzantha garrula may be seen in flocks of ten to twenty in 

 the bush, and a fuschia tree in my garden which was in 

 flower, was a great resort for Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris, four 



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