riie yutensland Naturalist. 
August, 1926 
trails) maJ?e 1heir appearanet\ These birds have iu- 
^reasod eiiontiously as a result of the. settlement of white 
men in Australia, just as the inhabitants of the scrub 
ha^'e dwindled. Tn New Zealand the same process has 
been even more marked. The greater part of the country 
was originally covered with bush, of types which would 
be called ‘'scrub'' in Queensland. All the small native 
birds lived in the bush with the exce])tiou of the Pipit 
(Anthus novaezealandiae) and the Fernbird (Bowdleiia 
punctata) the former frequenting ”:rassy country and 
the latter swami)s. The buiuiing of most of the busli and 
the draining of swamps has left the New Zealand Pipit 
.as the only common native bird over great areas of cul- 
tivated and pastoral country. 
Tn Australia the birds adapted to living in open 
country art' fortunately far more numerous than in New 
Zealand, and as the scrubs in coastal disti'iets are cleared 
.away birds from the interior districts seem to be gradu- 
ally making their way towards the coast. About Brisbane 
the Kedbacked Kingfisher (Halcyon pyrrhopygius) is 
now fairly eommon, Init it is most , unlikely that it oc- 
curred in tile district jirioi' to its settlement by white 
men a hundred years ago. Another inland' bii'd found in 
small numbers on tlie Uppei* Brisbane Kiver is the White- 
baeked Swallow (Oheramoeca leucostemum), and i>ro- 
bably the same remarks apply I 0 it. T have seen the 
Quan-ion (Leptolophus hollandicus) in the Lockyer dis- 
trict. but tliis inland species is nomadic in habits, and 
possibly visited tlie more open tiarts of the coastal 
'districts before settlement took place. Tr is noteworthy 
that this species was one of the birds obtained in Aus- 
tralia on Captain Cookes first voyage. We do not know 
at which of the several localities whei-e he landed this 
speci^^s was obtained, but we may surmise that it was at 
Bustard Bay, which received its name from the Plain 
Turkey (Eupoditis austnalis), which was killed and 
eaten there. I have suggested elsewhere that the year 
of Captain Cook's visit was probably a specially dry 
■season in Queensland, since a Bustard was obtained on 
the coast, and the fact that a Quarrion was also secured 
■confirms me in this view. A careful reading of Cook’s 
and Banks’ journals lends support to this conclusion, 
which may perha])s be of value to meteorologists in en- 
ablintr them to calculate the cycles when droughts maW 
he anticipated. Thus a knowledge of ^he habits of birds 
may he of considerable economic importance. 
