The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-20
AUSTRALIAN BIRDS.
A Great Variety of Species of Curious
Habits.

Although Australia has no native
song birds like the nightingale, lark,
thrush or linnet, it possesses (writes a
Sydney correspondent a great variety
of feathered species, several of great
beauty, and many possessing features
of interest. Among those found in New
South Wales the parrot is, perhaps, the
most common. Several of these are Pc
culiar to Australia, there being over
sixty species found In no other country.
Among these are the cockatoo parrot,
long beaked white cockatoo, black cock
atoo,s forest parrot and rosella. There
are also a grass parrot, blue mountain
parrot, love bird and ground parrot.
| They are all equally distinguished by
the beauty of their plumage, the splen-
dor of several species being unrivaled.
Among the latter is the crimson or
blood stained cockatoo. The honey
eater is numerous, many of the genera
| being peculiar to Australia, if not to
| New South Wales. In not few places
the bower bird invites attention by rea-
son of it's building, in addition to its
nest, bower on the ground, adorned
with shells and odds and ends picked
up in the bush. No certain use has ev-
er been assigned to this strange struc-
ture, save that 1t is used as a kind of
| playground, which is all that is known.
| Apart from its bower the bird is re-
markable for the extraordinary beauty
of it's plumage.
There are several other bids which
possess this strange habit of con-
structlng bowers. There are two va
rieties of mound making birds-leipoa-
cellata and egapodius-which lay their
| eggs III a few leaves and twigs, sur
rounded by large mounds of sand
scraped together by the birds, the eggs
| being left to hatch themselves by the
heat of the compcs st heap in which they
are imbedded. The eggs of leipoa are
so thin that they could not be set on
| by the bird without being broken. The
mounds are ger orally found in desert
shrubs, the eggs being Of large size
and much used as articles of food By
bushmen.
The beautiful Tyre bird is occasionally
met with in the dense forests of the
colony, but being extremely shy, has
to be sought with caution. Many birds
/ known in Europe are plentiful in New
South Wales. Among these are eagles,
hawks, owls, swifts swallows, martens,
| fly = catchers, pelicans sand pipers.
| plovers, ducks, grebes, petrels, gulls.
terms, penguins and albatrosses. The
number of ducks on the inland rivers
and lagoons is at times surprising. The
Rev. J. E. Tension Woods, the eminent
naturalist, says that he has travelled
in winter along the river Murray and
the long estuary of the Coorong. and
for upward of 120 miles was never out
of sight of large flocks, which literally
darkened the air and water.
The swallow and the cuckoo come and
go at certain periods as regularly as
in Europe. There are other birds which
do the same but the extent of their mi
grations has not been ascertained. They
arrive as the sun moves southwark
and return with it, but do not go north
of the equator. There are multitudes
of pigeons in the colony, many being.
remarkable for size and beauty of
plumage. In the interior districts the
birds find their way in immense num-
bers to places where water is to be
found. Swans, mostly black, are to be
found on some of the inland rivers, and
on the interior plains and in the scrub
deserts the emu, the Australian typical
bird, is frequently seen. 1t is not found
outside of Australia.
The sparrow, as in other countries is
the pest Of the farm orchard. SO long
as there is plenty of seed and fruit the
bid does not trouble itself about in
seets, but it leaves them to it's in
sectivorous brethren. Every kind of
British cage bird thrives in the colony
but when liberated they often have to
| light for existence with the native
Species Birmingham Post.