558 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



May, 1914 



in its bill of fare the dreaded 

 buU-doff ant. Campers please note; 

 ajid when next you "draw a bead" 

 upon a harmonious shrike thrush, 

 stay your hand and remember the 

 stin? of the bull-dog ant. 



Another well-known friend is 

 that daintv little sprite, the wel- 

 come swallow, who so trustlully 

 constructs its plastered nest be- 

 neath the verandahs. WTiat a po- 

 tent engine of destruction is thi.< 

 mite. From morning till night it 

 may be seen busily skimming hi- 

 ther and thither, gathering in the 

 harvest of noxious flj-ing insects, 

 especially mosquitoes. 



Out in the fields, ground larks, 

 chats, robins, plovers, magpies, 

 and others too numerous to men- 

 tion, are working hard in our in- 

 terests, vet everv day many are 

 ruthlesslv destroyed. 



In the more thicklv-wooded coun- 

 trv we find tree-creepers and sitel- 

 las eaeerlv searchintr the bark of 

 trees for insect foes that are lurk- 

 ing there. Lower down at the 

 foot of' the trees are scrub wrens, 

 shrike robins and others also per- 

 forming their quota of the work. 

 Higher un, amonest the tree tops, 

 are pardalotes, shrike tits, wMst- 

 lers, cuckoos, etc., all eagerly bent 

 on devastatine the ranks of the 

 enemv. 



— l,aughing Jacks. — 



Near the edsre of the wood our 

 old friend the lauching iackass is 

 busy devouring a fat juic}'- gmb 

 which later would have developed 

 into q destructive beetle. Occa- 

 sionallv, when luck favours him, a 

 meal is made of some dreaded rep- 

 tile, and c^-mners mav have the 

 pleasure of seeing a black snake 

 beinp demolished by our jolly 

 co'mpanion. 



■NTear the nond p-racefullv walks 

 the mudlark, which, besides des- 

 trovinrr numerous insects, has a 

 " sweet tooth " for thte water 

 snail which is known to be the 

 intermediate host of the liver 

 fluke, flUvavs a menalce to our 

 sheep industrv. 



In an orchard near bv a flock of 

 blabbers is usually hard at work 

 in search of the codlin moth, which 

 the birds consider to be a tooth- 

 some morsel. A little brown fly- 

 catcher sits unon the wire fence, 

 from time to time dartintr into the 

 air to capture some passing fly 

 or moth, and lucky indeed is the 

 in<5ect that escapes it. 



Suddenly a kestrel swoops into 

 the field, and a farmer friend see. 



ing that it is a hawk immediately 

 shoots it. An examination of its 

 stomach, however, reveals the fact 

 that it is a valuable insectivorous 

 bird. 



— Eagles. — 



A big nest placed high up in a 

 lar"^ gum tree next attracts atten- 

 tion, and proves to be the home 

 of a pair of wedge-tailed eagles 

 (eaglehawks). A visit to this is 

 well repaid, for tmderneath it is 

 found a great heap of bones and 

 pelts of rabbits. The noble old 

 wedtre-tailed eafle, the largest of 

 its kind in the world, repays twen- 

 tv-fold for anv small amount of 

 damage that it mav occasionally 

 do in partaking of a stray lamb 

 at times — in fact, there are very 

 few authenticated instances indeed 

 of this bird killing lambs. Some 

 western district squatters -mil not 

 allow eatrles to be killed iipon their 

 estates under ;inv consideration, as 

 thev deem them to be their best 

 natural protection against the rab- 

 bit. 



Even at night time the birds 

 are still working, as it is then 

 that the owls, frogmouths, and 

 nicrhtjars sally forth. Till the break 

 of day these birds will be busily 

 employed in capturing those in- 

 sects that are nocturnal in their 

 habits. From the stomach of an 

 owl have been taken four large 

 caterpillars, two spiders, three 

 cockchafer beetles, three large 

 moths, and a quantity of other 

 insect remains too much digested 

 to be recognised. 



The numerous honey-eating birds 

 destroy quantities of insects at 

 different seasons of the year, and 

 feed the young entirely upon them, 

 yet at present we afford them pro- 

 tection only during the breeding 

 season. 



It will thus be seen that all 

 over the Commonwealth there is a 

 vast army of birds working in our 

 best interests, and demanding as 

 payment only the right of exis- 

 tence. It behoves every Austra- 



lian who has the welfare of his 

 country at heart to do all in his 

 power to afford protection to our 

 native birds. 



^> 



Wheat Silos. ^ 



A Wimmera wheat farmer writes 

 to The Leader as follows : — It oc- 

 curs to me that the farmers will 

 have to do something that will 

 bring immediate relief in the mean- 

 time, particxdarly from the eWl of 

 what is called " free storage." 

 Under this system the growers are 

 invited to bring their wheat into 

 the mills, to be held free of stor- 

 asre charges,, imtil such time as 

 the erowers choose to sell. Then 

 the wheat is at once poured into 

 the mill silo, along • with other 

 free storatre consignmencs, and the 

 emptied bags put awav by the 

 millers for sale, as • their per- 

 ciuisite, with the added advantage 

 that thev beti^in at once to grind 

 the wheat into flour, without hav- 

 ing to purchase until some future 

 date, when the farmer desires to 

 sell. When that times comes the 

 millers pay for the wheat which 

 thev have already tised, and which 

 has enabled them to keep prices 

 down, hy not requiring to go on 

 the market. This illusory system 

 is only " free " in that it gives a 

 licence to the buyers to make free 

 with the sellers' produce, very 

 much in their own, and very 

 much against, the farmers' in- 

 terests. 



The same system is carried out 

 by the buyers for export. Here 

 we have so called free storage in 

 the form of immense wheat stacks 

 at the railway stations, exposed 

 to the weather, the depredations 

 of vermin, leaky bao-s, and all the 

 many sources of waste vAth which 

 we are familiar. All this wheat 

 is being used in a way that is 

 grievously opposed to the grow- 

 ers' intere.sts. If this wheat were 

 off the market, the present opera- 

 tors, in order to get it, would 



r. J. RICHARDS & SONS, 



CARRIAGE, BUGGY 

 SULKY & MOTOR BODY 

 .BUILDERS. 



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