LAUGHING JACKASS 
and pulling off of bits of bark round the entrance, 
so that often there are quite a lot of chips on the ground 
below, and the entrance shows distinctly the work 
of the feathered carpenters. Three eggs are laid, 
pure white. 
Mr. Riordan notes it as invariable that the hole 
is so shallow that the Jackass is able to survey the 
vicinity without getting off her eggs. 
The flight of the Jackass is heavy and ungainly, 
and always, on reaching the branch to which it has 
flown, it raises its tail once or twice as if to balance 
itself. 
The " laugh " is too well known to need descriptive 
words of mine ; the young lose no time in learning 
it, but make some weirdly hoarse noises in the process, 
while the old birds keep up a constant chorus of 
encouragement. 
SACRED KINGFISHER 
Sauropatis sancta sancta 
If one undertook the classification of our birds accord- 
ing to their migratory movements, it would be seen 
that there is a considerable and very interesting 
group, mostly of the smaller species, which might 
be termed infra-Australian migrants — that is, birds 
which regularly spend the autumn and winter in 
the northern or, it may be, central parts of Australia, 
and return in the spring to breed in the southern 
portions of the Continent and in Tasmania. The 
