November, 1908. 



453 



LIVE STOCK. 



A NATIVE BIRD DESTROYING 

 THE SPARROW. 



By C. T. Musson, 

 Hawkesbury Agricultural College- 



In the Lachlander and Uondoboliii, 

 District Recorder, 26th February, 1908 

 (sent by Mr. G. L. Sutton, with para- 

 graph marked), the following statement 

 appeared : — 



"Mr. A. J. Taylor, of Wheatacre, in- 

 forms us that during the past few 

 months he has noticed the presence of 

 numbers of large birds, blue in colour, 

 with black heads, which are very des- 

 tructive to sparrows. In fact, since the 

 arrival of these aerial cannibals, spar- 

 rows are practically an unknown quan- 

 tity about Wheatacre." 



We wrote Mr. Taylor for further infor- 

 mation, and received the following 

 reply: — "Re the bird that takes the 

 sparrows, it is quite true that there is 

 not a sparrow left about the place, and 

 there were hundreds here. I tried in 

 every way to get rid of them, but since 

 those birds came we got rid of them. 

 We never saw the birds before ; they 

 are strangers. There are about four of 

 them in a flock, and they keep together. 

 I do not think it is a hawk, though they 

 balance in the air like a hawk. They 

 keep after the grasshoppers, but they 

 are death on the sparrows. The other 

 birds are not frightened of them. They 

 are very quick on the wing, and, when 

 flying, spread out the tail." 



Three days later came a specimen for 

 identification; it is the Ground Cuckoo- 

 Shrike (Pteropodocys phasianella). The 

 head and neck are dark-grey ; breast and 

 lower back dull white crossed by narrow 

 black bars ; wings, upper side black ; 

 under side white ; tail forked ; the ter- 

 minal half black. It is about the size of 

 a small pigeon, but more slender ; total 

 length from tip of bill to end of tail, 

 fourteen inches. Commonly, they make 

 use of their legs a good deal, not flying- 

 much. Insects are the chief food, and 

 we do not hear of them doing any 

 damage. 



This is a most interesting fact, which 

 should be noted by all dwellers west of 

 the range where the bird is found. If 

 this is to become a fixed habit, which 

 probably it now will, it would appear 

 that the sparrow has at least one enemy 

 in its new abode. Sportsmen should 

 take note and act up to the fact stated. 



Nature would here seem to be coming in, 

 for evidently the cheeky little interloper 

 is no longer to have such a peaceful time 

 as it has had in the past. The " balance 

 is beginning to kick," and we may con- 

 gratulate ourselves that at least one 

 cause is in operation which will help in 

 bringing the sparrow down in numbers 

 to such reasonable limits as will preserve 

 a due balance of life forms, and not 

 allow this particular bird to become 

 unduly plentiful. — Agricultural Gazette 

 of New South Wales, August, 1908, Vol. 

 XIX, Part 8. 



THE DEADLY HOUSE-PLY. 



CARRIERS OP DISEASE. 

 Sanitary Congress.— Sir J. Crichton 

 Browne's Address. 

 The Sanitary Inspectors' Association 

 commenced its annual conference in 

 Liverpool yesterday, says the " Daily 

 Telegraph " of the 9th September, 350 

 members attending from all over the 

 country, in addition to local represent- 

 atives.' They were welcomed to the city 

 by the Lord Mayor, Dr. Cator. 



presidential address. 

 Sir James Crichton-Browne devoted 

 the presidential address largely to the 

 subject of disease carriers. It might 

 sound chimerical, he said, to talk of the 

 abolition of a disease, but that was 

 what they must aim at ; the abolition 

 first of one disease and then of another, 

 uutil they had a clean bill of health. 

 The Liverpool School of Tropical 

 Medicine had in a decade added more to 

 the knowledge of tropical diseases than 

 all the preceding centuries. It might be 

 safely predicted that if the researches 

 being carried on at that school and 

 at the sister school in London 

 were adequately supported, some tro- 

 pical diseases— grievous scourges — would 

 before long be effectually controlled or 

 abolished. They had had only tlie other- 

 day a striking example of the practical 

 abolition of a disease in the case of Malta 

 fever. 



At considerable length Sir James 

 Crichton-Browne dealt with 



some op the causes op consumption, 



contending that the sharp distinction 

 formerly drawn between the human 

 and bovine tubercle bacilli had broken 

 down. Accumulated evidence left no 

 doubt as to the practical identity of 



