6 
The Queensland Naturalist February, 1934 
Northern and Western parts made their appearance. 
They nested freely and remained for nearly two years, 
then disappeared almost as suddenly as they came, just 
as suddenly disappeared the little squatter pigeon, a 
bird that had always been plentiful in those parts. In- 
quiries all over Queensland failed to locate them. A 
tew weeks ago 1 had a letter from my brother, C. A. 
Barnard, of Coomooboolaroo Station, telling me that 
while mustering stock his men had flushed a pigeon from 
its nest in the grass. On investigating my brother found 
the bird was a squatter pigeon. The nest contained four 
eggs. As two eggs are a full setting, did two birds 
lay in this nest, or was the bird doing double duty to 
try and again increase the species 7 
1901 and 2 are not the only years in which I have 
seen birds die from starvation. During several dry, 
cold winters 1 have seen many birds dead, and others 
so weak they could not fly into the trees. 
1 have read somewhere, that when Nature created 
man, she created a terrible “misfit” in the universe, 
and it seems as if it were so. Not one man in a thou- 
sand cares a jot about our feathered friends, “except 
those he can eat.” 
All over the world birds are disappearing before so- 
called civilization, and science is called on to And means 
to destroy the hordes of insect pests which threaten to 
destroy our crops and herds. 
Work that could easily have been accomplished by 
the birds, did we not so ruthlessly destroy them. 
I suppose such things are to be. But it is a terrible 
pity. 
I have mentioned the disappearance of the squatter 
pigeon. For the benefit of those who do not know what 
a squatter pigeon is like, I will give a brief description. 
It is a small, compact bird, with brown back, mottled 
brown and white face and cheeks, and greyish white 
breast. The flesh is white and delicate, therefore they 
were much sort after for the pot. It is essentially a 
ground bird, generally found about cattle camps in 
small flocks. Gets the name squatter from its habit of 
“squatting” from danger, and will allow one to ride 
or walk almost on top of them before they rise with a 
loud whirr which is very unpleasant when one is riding 
a nervous horse. 
In a drought like that of 1901 and 1902, when so 
many birds died, one would expect these little pigeons 
to have suffered badly, but, strange to say, for a year 
after the drought they were plentiful and lots of nests 
