Thirty-eight 
THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST 
March, 1953 
Cucurbitaceae:— The small red 
globular cucumber, up to \ inch in 
diameter, Melothria maderaspa- 
tana, a slender climber, may per- 
haps be eaten by birds. The green- 
ish, ovoid to elliptical oblong 
melon, about an inch long, of 
Cucumis Melo var. cigrestis, the 
Ulcardo Melon, found north of 
Oodnadatta and Cooper’s Creek, is 
eaten by the natives. 
A consideration of the above 
list of South Australian native 
plants with edible fruits and of 
their distribution, especially in the 
Southern parts, shows what diffi- 
culty an introduced fruit-eating 
bird would have to maintain its 
existence were it not for intro- 
duced plants, cultivated or wild. 
It is doubtful whether any 
native fruits are eaten by the in- 
troduced Blackbird or Starling. As 
regards grains of native grasses and 
dry seeds and fruits such as those 
of our Acacia , Chenopodiaceae, 
etc., it seems doubtful whether any 
of the introduced birds (Sparrows, 
Starlings, Blackbirds, Goldfinches, 
Greenfinches, English Skylarks and 
Lace-neck Doves) feed upon them 
at all. These pests are more or less 
confined to the more fertile South, 
where, with the exception of some 
of the Acacias, such seeds are not 
now common, many of the native I 
plants having been replaced by in- * 
troduced ones. In our dry north, 
the seeds of several grasses, of the 
native Portulaca, of species of 
Chenopodium and even of Euca- 
lypts are gathered by the natives, 
ground and eaten, and doubtless 
would be used by grain-eating in- 
troduced birds if they had reached 
these regions. The sparrow has 
certainly reached many townships 
in the north which are along the 
railway lines, having advanced 
from camp to camp during the 
construction and staying behind 
where settlement occurred. It could 
not cross over to Western Australia 
when the East-West Line was laid 
down, as this had been started 
from both ends, thus meeting in 
the middle and by that time rail- 
way camps on the Western Aus- 
tralian side had ended. This bird 
seems unable to maintain itself 
away from human habitations, un- 
like the Goldfinch. 
Native Birds and Their Food 
Emu and Cassowary:— North 
says that the fruits of the Quan- 
dong ( Eucarya acuminata), the 
Sour Plum or Emu Apple ( Owenia 
acidula), and the Prickly Pear 
form a large portion of the food of 
the Emu. It has been an extensive 
spreader of the latter pest. J. A. 
Boyd, quoted by North, mentions 
that in the Herbert River district 
in North-Eastern Queensland when 
the Quandong is ripe, the dung of 
the Australian Cassowary is a mass 
of stones of this fruit. 
Leipoa:— Robert Grant in- 
formed North that he had found 
the stones of Quandong and of 
Owenia acidula in the crops and 
stomachs of Mallee-Fowls in Wes- 
tern New South Wales. 
Quail:— Ridley points out that 
the quail are liable to be caught by 
birds of prey and in this way seeds 
in their crops may be liberated and 
so dispersal of plants may occur. 
He quotes M. M. Makai for the 
statement that “Colurnix australis, 
the Australian Swamp Quail” 
( Synoicus australis , Brown Quail) 
was introduced into New Zealand 
and that these birds are “most ac- 
tive agents in the spread of black- 
berries and gorse in Auckland.” 
Thomson is his authority for the 
statement that Coturnix pectoralis 
(Stubble Quail) in New South 
