THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
F. L. Bemey in his notes on Queensland birds {Emu, Vol. IV., p. 46, 1904) 
adds : “ The Channel bill or Stormbird, as it is universally called out here, 
was first heard in 1902, on 3rd December, and in 1903 on 6th November, while 
Mr. Smedley reports their first appearance at Homestead, on the Campaspe 
River, on 1 1th September in 1903. My latest date in 1903 is 4th April, while 
in 1904, although they had practically all gone by the first week in April, yet 
I heard one on the 29th of that month — an exceptionally late date — and on 
my expressing surprise, I was told that the young Scythrops had been reared 
in a Crow’s nest close by, and was still following its foster-parents about.” 
Berney later wrote me : “I have never seen this bird’s eggs in anj^ other 
nest than that of Corvus coronoides. I have, more than once, seen two of this 
Cuckoo’s eggs in one nest. Last season (1909) I found a Crow’s nest containing 
three Scythrops^ eggs. I once saw two young Scythrops and one Crow in the 
same nest. The latter withstood all the attempts of the two interlopers to 
put him out. When I saw him last he was well and hearty, and would, in a 
couple of days more, be able to leave the nest on his own account.” 
A good note is given by Broadbent {Emu, Vol. X., p. 240, 1910) : “ At 
Cardwell, the Channel bill is a migratory bird here in October. It is fondest of 
hill scrubs. In the Cowrie Creek scrubs these birds lay in the nests of Strepera 
graculina (Pied Crow-Shrike). At the head of the Murray River, 25 miles out 
of Cardwell, in January, in the scrubs at the base of the mountains, Channel bills 
were numerous. They appeared to be collecting together for migration purposes. 
They are high fliers, and keep in the highest trees in the forest and scrub, feeding 
on small figs. The figs appear to be their favourite diet, but they eat insects, 
and even meat (tame ones). In the breeding -time these birds are flying about 
and screeching aU night — in fact, they appear to be more lively in the night 
than in the daytime. I am fully convinced that they feed their young aU 
night, and the foster-parents aU day. A pair of these birds hved on Mount 
Graham, near where I was staying, at Mr. Richard Lee’s, Cowrie Creek Gorge. 
In the daytime they would not be heard, but after dark, until dawn, they were 
busy all the time, flying from peak to peak up the mountain, and screeching 
the whole time. In the daytime the Crow-Shrikes were at work, and no Chickoos 
were to be seen or heard. At Cape York I have seen specimens of these birds 
in February. I shot four feeding in a fig tree — ^two adult and two young — ^the 
latter being as large as the old ones. At Cape York in March all kinds of 
Cuckoos were quite common. Their stay there was about a month, and then 
they all disappeared except Chalcococcyx russatus and Gacmnantis ty7nbonomus 
{variolosus). They were nearly aU young birds.” 
Macgiilivray’s notes {Emu, Vol. XIII., p. 164, 1914) are also good : “ These 
birds, known in the Gulf Country as Stormbirds, on account of their first 
