November 1, 1909 
— 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
37 
ritish » resident, Her Grace the Duchess of Portland } 
— AUSTRALIAN BRANCH.— 
PRESIDENT—LADY BONYTHON. 
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{ 
VICE-PRESIDENTS—Rianr Honovraste SIR S. J. WAY, ie 
Banrr,. and Mrs, JOHN PLAYFORD. i 
HON, SECRETARY-—MRS Somerville. 
Several Aspects of the Protection of Our Native Birds 
[By Walter W. Frogyatt, Government Entomologist, in the 
‘ Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W.’] 
(Continued from August issue). 
Tho same state of things comes about 
When, through the destruction of a 
Natural check upon its undue increase, a 
Useful insectivorous bird increases more 
Tapidly than under the original conditions 
Of life, so that the food supply is insufli- 
Clent, Then the same state of things 
Comes about, and the farmers’s crops are 
affected; so some more damage is done— 
Perhaps not as much as it saves by 
devouring at the same time pestiferous 
thsects, yet so evident that the practical 
farmer takes steps to destroy by poison 
°r gun a bird he once looked upon with 
Mendly eyes. 
of any years ago, on the northern plains 
cS Victoria, the writer watched this 
Yolution of useful to injurious birds 
ake Place in the course of a very few 
eats When he first went on the land 
Was subdivided into very large 
Mddocks, in which grazed the squatter’s 
“ep. Then came the selectors under 
s ®new Land Acts; the station holdings 
*Te cut up into small blocks and fenced 
into smaller holdings of 320 acres, or even 
less. 
Under the old regime bird and animal 
life had not altercd much from earlier 
normal conditions, under which it is 
quite safe to say that from 25 to 50 per- 
cent. of the eggs and nestlings of .the 
magpies, magpie larks, and numbers of 
the insectivorous birds fell victims to 
the hawks, crows, whistling jackasses, and 
even to our innocent-looking friend the 
Laughing Jackass. 
With settlement came sheep worrying 
dogs, and the squatter and selector laid 
poisoned baits, or poisoned the body of 
the sheep that had been worried, with the 
result that the hawks, crows, and other 
flesh eaters were killed as well as the 
dogs. Within a few years the increase of 
the insectivorous birds on the plains was 
was very noticeable; as the ploughman 
sent his team along turning over the 
furrow, one would see a whole string of 
magpies and magpie larxs behind him 
picking up the grubs and worms ex- 
posed. . 
. The plouzh and cultivator brought to 
hand a fresh, if temporary, increase o 
food, which meant more nestlings. Then 
the reaction commenced, the food limit 
was reachcd, and one morning the farmer 
saw the magpies hunting all over the 
freshly-shooting wheat paddock. At first. 
he rejoiced to see his feathered friends at 
work for him, probably at a plague of 
cut-worms or caterpillars. Later on he- 
crossed the paddock and found many 
young wheat plants pulled up and the 
soft wheat at the rootlets bitten off. His. 
s ientific frieud across the creck, to whom 
he complained, said it was impossible ;. 
magpies would not eat wheat, they were. 
insectivorous; if they had pulled the 
wheat seedling up it was to get at some 
grub on the roots. Unconvinced, the 
farmer a few days later shot a couple of 
magpies that he had watched at work on 
his paddock, and on making a rough 
post mortem examination of their 
stomachs found the bulk of the contents 
was composed of the soft spongy wheat 
grains from the ravished wheat-field. 
Then he too‘ action and shot magpies. 
until the survivors flew away in dis- 
gust. Since then many thousands of 
magpies have been shot in both Victoria. 
New South Wales for this acquired food 
habit. 
Here is another instance of the vanish- 
ing fauna: In the Capertee district some: 
years ago the writer was visiting an 
orchard, whose owner stated that during 
the last two years he had killed 300 native. 
bears in his trees. He explained that 
the reason of such an invasion was that 
the neighbouring land-owner had ring- 
barked some thousands of acres of 
eucalyptus forest surrounding his 
place, and as the gum trees died the 
native bears had to move on or die of 
starvation ; and as his was the only green 
spot in the neighbourhood they came 
there, and climbing about on the fruit 
trees broke branches and foliage ; so they 
were shot. Only when one knows what 
a multitude of living creatures take up. 
their home on every old gum tree, can 
one understand what a change must. 
take place in the ringbarking of our 
forests. 
(To be Continued,) 
Those desirous of joining the Royal 
Society for the Protection of Birds should 
communicate with the Hon. Secretary— 
Mrs. Somerville, ‘St. Omers, Eton 
St., Malvern. Any person may become an 
associate on paying the sum of sixpence- 
(children under 14, threepence), as a. 
registration fee, and agreeing to the ob- 
jects of the Society. Associates may 
become members on agreeing to pay not. 
- jess than one shilling annually. 
