The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-11-27
AUSTRALIAN BIRDS.
A Great Variety of Species of Curious
Habits,

From the Birmingham Post.
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, per-
haps, the most common. Several of
these are peculiar to Australia, there
being over sixty species found in no
other country. Among thes are the
cOckatOo parrot, lOng-beaked white
cOckatOO, black cockatoo forest par
rot and rOsella. There are also
grass parrot, Blue mountain parrot,
love bird and ground parrot. They
are all equally distinguished by the
beauty and variety of their plumage,
the splendor 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 a few
places the bower bird invites attention
by reason of its building, in addition
to it's nest, a bower on the ground,
adorned with shells and odds and ends
picked up in the bush. No certain use
has ever been assigned to this strange
structure, save that it is used as a
kind of a playground which is all
that is known. Apart from it's bower,
the bird is remarkable for the extra
ordinary beauty of its plumage.
There are several other birds which
possess this strange habit of construct
ing bowers. There are two varieties
OF mountaineering birds-leipoacellata
and egapodius-which lay their eggs
in a few leaves and twigs surrounded
by large MOUNDS o. sand scraped to-
gether by the birds, the eggs being
left to hatch themselves by the heat
of the compost heap in which they are
imbedded. Inc eggs of leipoa are so
thin that they could not be sat on by
! the bird without being broken. The
mounds are generally found in desert
shrubs, the eggs being of large size and
much used as articles of food by BUSH
/ men.
The beautiful Tyre bird is occasion
ally met with in the dense forests of
the colonoy 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,
| martins, fly-catchers, pelcans, sand
| pipers, plovers, ducks, grebes, petrels,
gulls, terms, penguins and albatrosses.
he number of ducks on the inland
rivers and lagoons is at times sur
prising. The Rev. ]. 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 upwards Of
100 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 migrations has not been ascer-
tanned. 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 col
ony many being remarkable for size
and beauty of plumage. In the in
terior districts the birds find their way
in immense numbers to places where