I 
BROWN KINGFISHER (LAUGHING JACKASS). 
{Dacelo gigas) is a very common species throughout this district (Cobbora, 
New South Wales), but some springs they appear to be much more plentiful 
than others. During the big drought of 1902 they died in dozens, and for 
several years after they were very scarce, but during the last few years they 
have been much more numerous than I have ever known them to be. As 
the district is suffering from a very severe drought at the present time (May, 
1915), and the winter is just approaching, I am afraid they will die in vast 
numbers during the cold weather which is in front of us. They prefer the 
open forest country, not being so often seen in the scrubs. Its extraordinary 
laughing notes are quite impossible to describe ; it is mostly heard in the 
early morn or just after sunset, and always at its best when two or more birds 
are together, which is usually the case, but I have often noticed that during 
dry seasons they are seldom if ever heard. It has a peculiar habit of elevating 
its tail ; this is more especially the case just after it has perched upon some 
dead horizontal branch of a tree. For nesting they choose a rotten part of 
a tree, living or dead, and taking turn about they dart at it from a neighbouring 
branch, and with their powerful beaks excavate a fairly large hollow ; they 
build no nest, simply laying their eggs upon the decaying wood. The clutch 
is usually three, seldom four, and if not disturbed (even sometimes when they 
are) they will return to the same nesting hollow year after year. Like the 
Dollar Bird, they are wonderfully quick at hearing, they flush from their neat 
at the least sound of anything approaching. I have purposely tried to walk 
quietly up to a tree where I have known a bird to be sitting, but invariably 
when within about twenty yards of the tree I would see a bird’s head pop out 
of the entrance of the hollow, then out it would fly ; it may be that they have 
a very keen sense of smell. Some birds are very pugnacious when they have 
a nest. I have examined many nests containing eggs ; one was in December, 
all the others from September 16th to the end of October.” 
At Cardwell, Queensland, Ramsay wrote : “ Not so common as D. leachii : 
only two or three pairs noticed. Their different note at once distinguishes them 
even at a great distance.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor’s notes read : “The Laughing Jackass is widely distributed 
throughout the timbered and hilly parts of South Australia, the mountainous 
situations seeming to be preferred. In the Mount Lofty Ranges it is common, 
and makes its nest in the hollow of some large eucalypt, where three or four 
white eggs are laid, the texture of the shell being fine, therefore a glossy surface 
resulting. The breeding months are September to December. I have never 
seen it in Kangaroo Island, although splendid places are there for it to breed 
in. I have noted it a long way up north, also in Victoria, New South Wales, 
and while in the Blackall Ranges in South Queensland I saw numbers of 
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