CHANNEL BILL. 
shy. I have never seen it on the ground, but always at the tops of large trees. 
One, shot Mr. Gregory and preserved, proved to be an incubating female ; 
it contained several eggs, one nearly matured, and from the state of the oviduct 
another must have been recently extruded. Its habits seem to indicate that 
it is parasitic, and this view is confirmed by Lady Dowling informing me that 
a young specimen, kindly presented to me by her ladyship, was one of two 
taken from a branch of a tree while being fed by birds not of its own species.’ ” 
Mr. Thos. P. Austin, writing to me from Cobbora, New South Wales, says : 
“ A very rare visitor to this district, but occasionally I have seen small flocks 
of from four to five, and my attention has always been drawn to them by their 
loud peculiar notes, which can be heard at a great distance, and are quite 
impossible to describe. During the spring of 1914, while riding through a 
fairly thick scrub, in large ironbark timber, I heard one of these birds. It flew 
almost directly over me, and, hanging on to the tip of its tail, was a Friar-bird, 
and it held on with its beak all the time they were in sight of me. They are 
usually known by the name of Rain-Bird.” 
Keartland wrote from N.W. Austraha : “ At the approach of the tropical 
rain in J anuary the Scythrops made its appearance in the early morning, always 
coming from the west and going east. Their loud notes, which they utter 
when flying, were always noticed by the Crows at our camp, which at once 
assembled and attacked the intruder. Then a battle royal ensued. Two or 
more Crows attacked simultaneously, and the sharp snap of their bills might 
be heard for some distance. Wlien the Channel bill was chased for about a 
mile the Crows returned to their quarters. On Mount Campbell a pair of 
Scythrops frequently resorted to a fig tree to feed. I shot the female on 3rd 
March, and found the stomach full of figs. The ovaries were well developed, 
and contained three yolks varying in size, one being as large as a small cherry, 
the other two slightly less. Near the Margaret River the natives took two 
young ones from a Crow’s nest near the Homestead, which the Scythrops had 
frequently visited. They are locally known as ‘ Stormbirds.’ ” 
H. L. White {Emu, Vol. III., p. 233, 1904) recorded from Scone, in New 
South Wales : “ The Channel bill {Scythrops novcehollandice) has been unusually 
plentiful in this district during the spring, and has been as reliable as ever in 
the matter of weather changes — in fact, the shearers look upon the bird as a 
real prophet of evil. On 11th November I shot a female containing four 
immature eggs, the largest being haH an inch in diameter, and am inchned 
to think that the Scythrops feeds at night, as the one I shot was flying past 
at 5 a.m., and its stomach was then full of wild figs, and I know of no figs 
growing nearer than ten miles from here. It was just sunrise when I shot 
the bird, so it follows that it must have been feeding before daylight.” 
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