The mirror., 1919-05-01
I may not be generally
known that a certain day

NES$&SaN known that certain day
NISNNh is set apart in Australia
lA-Ag and celebrated as Bird
Day." On this day the boys and
girls of the Commonwealth receive
special instruction with regard to
the habits of their native birds,
and their economic importance to
mankind. Bird songs are sung by
the children on this day, and bird
stories are told to them by their
teachers. Birdlore, indeed, at.
tracts the attention of some 5000
of the country's schools.
In addition to the simple lore
discussed in the schools, more seri-
Gus lectures are also given, on the
migration and preservation of Aus
tralian birds. The children are
encouraged to participate in this
by winter-feeding, the protection
of nests and eggs, and individual
attraction of shy birds to the gar
dens and trees surrounding their
city homes. A quaint feature of a
Bird Day" celebration is the bird
call competition, in which prizes
are awarded for the cleverest imi-
tations of the notes and cries of
magpies, cuckoos, curlews, wild
duck, Kukaburras and other typi-
cal Australian birds.
Now there is a popular fallacy
that Australia is not a bird coun-
try" and that such birds as exist
there, albeit gorgeously decorative,
are yet without song. The vast
ness of the country, the compare
tive sparseness of the population,
and the consequent shyness of the
birds may be responsible for the
former assertion. When it is con-
sidered, however, that Australia is
a southern land with conditions
naturally favorable for birds; and
when it is discovered that birds of
the most unique habits and ap-
pearance, the most lovely plumage
and song, and of the most highly
developed species are particularly
we'll represented, or in many cases
are exclusive to Australia-these
charges will be easily disproved.
Mr.. Gregory Matthews. a leading
Australian ornithologist, says rath-
er Indignantly. in fact: why,
some of our songsters equal the
English birds; while the Austria
lian reed warbler or the harmoni-
Gus thrush sing even better than
the far-famed English nightin-
gale"
Mr.. Matthews has found Austria
liza an attractive field for bird study.
Rarely beautiful color. and intense
ly individual character, even in the
most ordinary functions of bird
life, reward the student in Aus
tralia. Mound-building birds that
do not sit on their eggs, cuckoos
Zone of the fourteen Australian
species of that bird) that actually
condescend to lay in their own
nest and to hatch their own young;
birds that run but cannot fly;
mocking birds and laughing birds;
brilliant honey-eaters and flower
eaters; ventriloquists! These are
all to be found in the Bush.
The Tyre bird, whose curiously
wrought tail plumage forecasts his
song, is strikingly beautiful. For
merly a more or less characteristic
feature of Australia, it is now un-
fortunately comparatively rare.
New South Wales in the earlier
days of it's history reproduced a
picture of this bird on some of the
stamps. But they are no longer
in circulation. Perhaps the most
melodius songster of the Bush, the
Tyre bird is also a humorous mimic,
and is locally known as the mock
ing bird. The bower bird is an
other of rare beauty and unique
habit. Its name is derived from
its quaint practice Of constructing