BROWN KINGFISHER (LAUGHING JACKASS). 
selecting a lioUow limb of a gum tree : two to four white and almost round eggs 
are laid upon the decayed wood without any effort to make a nest. Their food 
consists of lizards, snakes, grubs, beetles, freshwater crayfish and young birds. 
I have known them to exterminate the Brown Flycatcher {Microeca) in one 
locality : this may be due to man interfering with their food supply through 
clearing of forest land and cultivation : they will take the young birds from the 
nest when pressed for food. I have seen one of these birds take an hour to beat 
a full-grown rat to pulp before it was in a condition to swaUow, and then the 
bird sat upon the branch with the rat’s tail hanging out of its mouth waiting for 
the body to digest. This bird will sit motionless on a low branch of a tree 
watching ; all at once he will fiy to the ground, give two or three pecks at the 
ground and shake his head after each to get rid of the earth on its bill : then 
sit back on its tail, pulling out a grand earthworm which it will carry to its perch, 
and, after pulverising, swallow. They are easily tamed and are often seen in 
gardens as domestic pets ; their flight is slow but slightly undulating, and even 
when they alight upon a limb the tail is moved up and down slowly several 
times. During the winter time they congregate in small parties to roost on the 
same bough at night, generally in some lofty old gum tree, and here just at dark 
and sonu times afterwards their chorus of coarse, hoarse laugh is heard, and 
before daylight they are the first bird to waken and give forth their morning 
greeting. When nesting they will become quite savage and I have had them 
fly at me after the manner of the Magpie.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby added : “ These birds are becoming very common 
round Adelaide wherever the timber is large. The hearty laugh of this 
species is often heard even in the suburbs of the City, perhaps attracted by 
the tame ones that are so often kept as pets by the citizens. I have met 
with this species in every part of Victoria I have visited where the country 
is timbered, and also found it common in the Blackall Range, South 
Queensland.” 
The South Australian Ornithologist contains one novel feature which 
in itself would satisfy the most exacting critic of the merit of the publication. 
In each number a common bird is dealt with in detail, being described and its 
habits and life-history given as far as possible. No authority is giv^n to 
these essays, so the conclusion is that they are the joint efforts of the members 
of the Society. These remarks preface the fact, and in Vol. I., pt. 2, April, 
1914, Dacelo gigas was the bird thus treated, and from the essay I select the 
following items as worthy of reproduction : “ They live in small companies, 
or probably in families, separating during the day to feed, and congregating 
just after sunset to roost. As they meet they render their part song, which 
has been compared to a loud, hoarse, coarse laugh, but which to the settler 
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