THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
“ On the 5th May, 1902, an immature female bird settled on the kitchen 
roof, and was captured and its wing clipped. The original bird, which had 
been very attentive to a Muscovy Duck, which it regularly trod (copulated) 
as I often saw, now paired with the new bird, and they built two or thi’ee 
nests of straw, etc., on a stack of wreckage timber, but some goats always 
ate them before completed, so they then commenced to build a nest on the 
ridge of the house roof, but did not complete it as I had to take them away 
to my shearing shed (35 miles distant) preparatory to my leaving the station, 
and sending the birds to the Zoo at South Perth, but most unfortunately 
they got swept by a heavy sea on the coaster schooner that took them away 
and both died on the voyage. 
“ Large flocks of G. spinicolUs were about my station at Broome HiU 
from May, 1905, until about August. April 23rd, 1911, I saw a solitary bird 
at Lake Muir, which I was assured had been there nearly two years, in 
company with some Notophoyx novce-hollandice” 
“ These birds were numerous along the course of the Fitzroy River, and 
they were found wading in many of the swamps on its margin. Occasionally 
large flocks were observed perched on the dead trees we passed.”* 
“ The young would leave the nest on being approached. They then 
swim to neighbouring bushes, and, although they are not web -footed 
they swim well and high. The parents feed them by placing partially 
digested food in their mouths, which food consists of grasshoppers, cater- 
pillars, fresh- water snails, etc., and if the young birds are handled much 
they occasionally eject the food from their stomach. ”f 
“ One could easily see their usual method of feeding, which consisted 
in constantly moving the bill here and there over the surface of the ground, 
exploring every recess between the grass tufts, apparently obtaining more 
insects by feeling or disturbing them, than by seeing, chasing or deliberate 
capture.”} 
“ A specimen of Geronticus spinicolUs was shot at Montagu, Tasmania, 
in the last week of September, 1895, by Mr. Fitzpatrick, the Government 
school master, who sent it to me, and I forwarded it to the Tasmanian 
Museum, Hob art. ”§ 
The bird figured and described is a male, collected at Alexandra, Eastern 
Northern Territory, on May 9th, 1906, by the late William Stalker. 
Though described by Latham in the General History of Birds, in 1824, 
this bird did not receive a scientific name until 1835, after which it was 
* Keartland, Trans. Roy. Soc. South Austr., Vol. XXII., p. 187, 1913. 
t Le Souef, Viet. Nat., Vol. XVII., p. 181, 1901. 
J North, Avstr. Mvs. Sp. Cat., no. 1, Vol. IV., p. 6, 1913. 
§ Holden, ib., p. 9. 
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