THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
when migrating, when they travel long distances without settling. Some 
years ago they migrated to New Zealand and settled there. In that country 
they are thought much of as insect destroyers. 
“ Song.—The White-eye has several distinctive notes. Wien in search of 
food it utters a long-drawn plaintive call of three notes. The same call is 
uttered in flight, but is then shorter. The alarm call is a shrill short note, but 
is not loud. The true, or love, song is a beautiful sustained trilling warble 
with a considerable range of notes, but so low-pitched as to be inaudible at a 
short distance. They usually sing while resting in a thick bush in the heat 
of the day. It is quite pretty to see a pair of White-eyes sitting side by side 
on a twig, the male singing his best, and frequently looking at his mate to 
see if it is being appreciated. . . The breeding-season lasts from July to 
December, two or three broods being reared. Sometimes two or three pairs 
wiU build in the same tree. . . . The White-eye is included (in South 
Australia ?) in the Third Schedule of The Birds Protection Act of 1900, ix., 
totally unprotected. This is on account of its fruit eating proclivities. 
Mr. Frank Littler has sent me the following account: “ This species 
frequents all sorts of country from heavily-timbered districts to cultivated 
orchards. It is principally during the autumn and winter months that the 
birds congregate in any numbers; often flocks of from a dozen to fifty, if not 
more, may be seen hunting for food in the fields. During the summer it moves 
in pairs or in a very small flock at most. It eats insects, seeds, small berries 
and fruit. It is very fond of the berry-like seeds of the grass palm. It is also 
a great destroyer of noxious insects. The movements of this bird when insect 
hunting are very rapid. It seems animated with the desire to devour as many 
as possible in the shortest possible time. It destroys the pear slugs just before 
they turn to pupse in the ground. During the summer the song of the W liite- 
eye is somewhat feeble and uninteresting, but the opposite is the case during the 
colder months. I have often been astonished at the power and sweetness of 
its song. The flight of this species is fairly strong, and it may sometimes be 
seen flying in flocks at a great altitude.” 
A delightful plea for this species was published in the first number of the 
Emu from the pen of Mr. Littler, where he urged that the good they did much 
counterbalanced their evil deeds. 
Dove also contributed an article some five years later, also favourable 
to this species, though admitting that it does damage fruit, and later wrote: 
“ As to the propensities of the White-eye for good or evil, observers are as 
widely separated as the poles. At the New South Wales Fruit Grovers 
Conference in 1890, James Norton, M.L.C., condemned our sprightly little 
friend as 4 the greatest pest which gardeners in this colony have to contend 
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