ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES 
By CLIVE E. LORD, F.L.S. 
On a sea voyage birds are of interest 
always. They add life to the gieat 
open spaces of the lone sea lanes, and 
■serve as a connecting link with distant 
shores, for the home ot all bird life 
is the land. Even the widely spread 
ail atrosses, kings of the air, and of the 
storms of the oceans, return to land to 
breed. in several places around the 
Tasmanian coast they congregate in 
hundreds at certain seasons of the y*ar. 
The a aquatic penguins struggle ashore 
and climb amidst the dunes to form their 
nesting burrows in much the same way 
as do the mutton birds or short-taiDd 
shearwaters, although the latter’s 
method of reaching land is the direct 
contrast of the former, for the mutton 
hire arrives at dusk—flying with aero¬ 
plane speed. 
During the course of our Easter ex¬ 
cursion we saw examples of all the a cove- 
mentioned birds. Steaming down the 
Derwent in the grey hours preceding an 
autumn dawn the sharp bark of the 
little penguins (Eudyptula minor) told 
of their presence. Penguins claim many 
unique characteristics. Their wings, re¬ 
duced to swimming paddles, the lack of 
feather tracts, their ability to swallow 
their food under water—these and other 
features mark the fact of their peculiar 
evolutionary trend. It is upon such 
changes that our system of classifica¬ 
tion is based. 
In Tasmania nineteen orders of birds 
occur, which orders are divided into 'he 
various families, genera, etc., rendered 
necessary by the structure and habits 
of the various species. 
The game birds, or Galliformes, fall 
naturally near the penguin group, and 
were fortunate enough to see large 
numbers of one species belonging to this 
order, for brown quail (Synoicus Aus¬ 
tralis) were plentiful on Schuuten 
Island, and coveys were disturbed con¬ 
tinually amidst the grass and the sand 
dunes. Schouten Island has been de¬ 
clared a sanctuary under The Animals 
and Birds Protection Act. It follows 
that it is an olienee to take a gun 
on to the island, hut, as with all such 
reserves, a sanctuary can never s.xpeci, 
to be a sanctuary in effect as well as 
name until such time as there is a 
permanent ranger in charge. 
In reference to the large and varied 
group which comprises the sen birds 
generally, various kinds were noted, hut 
many at too great a distance to identify 
specifically. In addition to those already 
noted, the black and white (P. fusees- 
cens) and the black cormorant (P. 
earbo) were common. Amidst the slioaia 
of surface swimming fishes, gaur.ets 
I'Sula serrator) were to be seen con¬ 
tinually diving to take their toll from 
the waters, hut although a look-out was 
kept, we failed to notice any pelicans 
upon the sand-pits at “The Narrows ” 
where we had seen them last year. 
Crested terns (Sterna bergi), silver gulls 
(barns novac-hollandiac). and Pacific 
gulls (Uabiatius pncificus) were ev-n'v 
distributed all around the const, as well 
as being familiar objects in the bay upon 
he shores of which we formed our camp. 
Wading birds, with the exception o f 
dottrells and oyster catchers, were not 
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