THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 

Australian Bird Maps 
 
 BY 
 ROBERT gALL, C.M.Z.S. 
 
 Past President Roy. Austr. Orn. Union 
 Hon Col. Memb. British Orn. Union 
 Corr. Fellow American Orn. Union 
 
 Author of 
 
 "A Key to the Birds of Australia" 
 "The Useful Birds of Southern Australia" 
 "Nature Studies in Australia" (Joint Author) 
 
 D 
 
 TO... 
 
 THE BOY SCOUTS 
 
 THE GIRL GUIDES 
 
 With any Profits that may occur 
 
 D 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 
 HOBART, MAY, 1922 
 
 (COPYRIGHT) 
 
p. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 Foreword 5 
 
 Introduction 11 
 
 Queensland and Northern Territory 23 
 
 Areas 1, 2, 3 7 1 , 7 2 , 7 3 
 
 New South Wales 71 
 
 Areas 3, 47 3 , 7 4 
 
 Victoria 113 
 
 Areas 4, 7 4 
 
 Tasmania 145 
 
 Area 5 
 
 South and Central Australia 175 
 
 Areas 6, 7 
 
 Western Australia 203 
 
 Areas 9, 7*; 8, 7 8 
 
INDEX TO MAPS 
 
 Map 
 
 Affinity 10 
 
 Altitude 30 
 
 Bee-eater 75 
 
 Boundaries 1 
 
 Bower Bird 78 
 
 Cassowary 15 
 
 Chat 35 
 
 Coach whip Birds . . . . 26 
 Cockatoos . . 72, 83, 84, 100 
 
 Colour Scheme 2 
 
 Cormorants 45 
 
 Crake 57 
 
 Cuckoos 22 
 
 Curlew 61 
 
 Diamond Birds 73 
 
 Dottrels 47, ,52 
 
 Ducks 43 
 
 Emu . . 15, 69 
 
 Fantails 19, 20 
 
 Finches, 30, 36, 41, 71, 80, 
 81, 88 
 
 Flycatcher 20 
 
 Fiyeater 66 
 
 Frogmouth 14 
 
 Gannets 27 
 
 Geese 44, 67, 98 
 
 Grass Warblers 24 
 
 Grebe 38 
 
 Gulls 59, 68 
 
 Hawks 6, 70 
 
 Herons 56 
 
 Honeyeaters, 23, 36, 53, 74, 
 78, 79, 86, 89 
 
 Kookaburra 6, 21 
 
 Kingfishers 6, 21 
 
 Map 
 
 Lyre Birds 32 
 
 Magpies 40, 47 
 
 Migrations, 7, 8, 28, 29, 31, 
 
 33, 34, 35 
 
 Mound Builders . . . . 15, 64 
 
 Owl . . 6, 53a 
 
 Oyster-catcher 68 
 
 Parrots, 18, 41, 53, 72, 75, 83 
 Penguins . . . . 6, 62. 65, 98 
 
 Petrels 42, 62, 68 
 
 Pigeons . . . . 16, 17, 37,- 47 
 
 Pipit . . . 30, 98 
 
 Pittas 10, 11 
 
 Quail 39 
 
 Races of a Species .... 34 
 
 Rail 57 
 
 Reefs 8, 9 
 
 Rifle Birds 13 
 
 Robins . . . . 30, 49, 51, 76 
 
 Scrub Birds 49, 50 
 
 Size and Colour 5 
 
 Snipe 60, 63, 64 
 
 Starling 13 
 
 Swan 44, 63 
 
 Swifts 12, 64 
 
 Terns .. 58, 98 
 
 Thrushes .. .. 6, 25, 36, 62 
 Tit Warblers .. . . 4, 77, 88 
 
 Tree-creepers 82 
 
 Tree-runners 42 
 
 Water Fowl 64 
 
 White-eyes 54, 55 
 
 Wrens . . . . 47, 85, 91, 95 
 Zones . . . 1 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 ALL the species of Australian birds do not fre- 
 quent the whole of Australia. Many keep to the 
 coastal scrubs, several to the hot areas of the north, 
 and others to the equally dry areas of the south. 
 Wherever the country conspicuously varies, a ma- 
 jority of the birds have some agreement with it. 
 
 The distribution of the present day species is the 
 result of definite plans in populating this island- 
 continent, amongst which we shall not fail to see an 
 inner ring between central Australia and its coast- 
 line. This is the collateral zone of pallid species; 
 offspring of the coastal species. Western Australia 
 contains the main ends of the great plan (map 89). 
 
 The maps stand for the normal distribution of 
 species and races, each area to be referred to as 
 e.g. Queensland 3, Queensland 7 3 , etc. Messrs. 
 Mathews and Iredale have contributed considerably 
 to our knowledge of species; and sub-species, my 
 races. Cayley's great work in the press will add 
 newer ground. The pages of the "Emu" are the 
 foundation in the making of these maps; and we have 
 now an attempt at graph values in the natural dis- 
 tribution of Australian birds. 
 
 R.H. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 
 
 PLATE 1 
 
 Maps- Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike, 6; Whimbrel, 6; 
 White-shouldered Caterpillar-eater, 6; White- 
 rumped Wood Swallow, 8; Tern, 9; White- 
 shafted Fantail, 19; Restless Flycatcher, 20; 
 Grass Warbler, 24; Mountain Thrush, 25; White- 
 throated Tree-creeper, 28 and B2; Harmonious 
 Shrike Thrush, 30; Ibis, 31; Magpie Lark, 32; 
 Pied Robin, 34. 
 
 PLATE 2 
 
 Maps White-fronted Chat, 35; Crescent Honey- 
 eater, 36; Cormorants, 45; Striated Grass Wren, 
 47; Black-fronted Dottrel, 52; White-eye, 54; 
 Pectoral Rail, 57; Spotted Crake, 57; Little 
 Greenshank, 61; Spotted Pardalote, 73; Mous- 
 tached Honey-eater, 74; Noisy Miner, 74; Bee- 
 eater, 75 and 7. 
 
 PLATE 3 
 
 Maps White-eared Honey-eater, 78; White-plumed 
 Honey-eater, 79; White-fronted Scrub Wren, 84; 
 Superb Warbler (Blue Wren) 85; Brown Fly- 
 catcher, 90; Ground Wren (Calamanthus) 91; 
 White-face (Xerophila) 92; Bronze Cuckoo, 93; 
 Stubble Quail, 93; Pipit, 98; White-browed Bab- 
 bler, 99; Shrike Tit, 99. 
 
PLATE 1. 
 
7*. 
 
 PLATE 2. 
 
PLATE 3. 
 
IP 
 
 2Y 
 
 9sw- 
 
 MAP 1 
 Areas of Distribution. 
 
 16, 8, 9, Coastal Zone. 
 
 7, Central Zone. 
 
 7' 7 9 , Collateral Zone. 
 
 3s 
 
 N 
 
 Sub-divisional Areas in Red 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE zoogeography of Australia, for all practical 
 purposes, comes under two heads. It has a 
 fauna on the northern and eastern coasts in con- 
 junction, or it extends over the greater portion of 
 the continent. The climatic conditions are so 
 slightly variable, yet so many, as to make innumer- 
 able races. 
 
 There is the coastal zone map 1, 1 5, 6, 8, 9, 
 with clearly marked species, while within two 
 hundred miles of the coast these species begin to 
 change in shade of colour, and show a collateral 
 zone (7 1 7 9 ). It is the action of a dry hot 
 atmosphere on them and their surroundings, giving 
 an inner circle of bird life; a ring of races. 
 
 This second continuous band fuses with and is 
 parent to the lessened life of Central Australia. 
 The outer ring 1 6, 8, 9, so far as most of Us land 
 forms are concerned, appears to have begun its 
 existence in area 2, on receipt of its early life from 
 New Guinea. Its extension went outwards 2 to 
 <i, and 2 to 8. From 4 the birds gradually travelled 
 to 5 and to 9. 
 
12 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 2 
 
 Colour and Colour Scheme. 
 
 1. Birds of finest colour and plumage (Paradiseidae) 
 
 2. The darkest plumaged birds. 
 
 3. The palest plumaged birds. 
 
 4. Desert tinted with extensions into the central area. 
 
 5. A 4,000 mile line of mangrove tidal habitat and 
 
 tint. 
 
 6. Sea birds of the north; aesthetic colour pattern. 
 
 7. Sea birds of the south; dull colour pattern. 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 Along these lines of expansion there are certain 
 breaks, over which many birds do not pass. The 
 Hawkesbury River system is one, and Bass Strait 
 another ; the first of forest foods, the second a water 
 barrier. 
 
 In the north the birds of area 2 could easily 
 travel to area 1, after which a break in type of 
 forest occurs. Many species, however, journeyed 
 in the region of the North-West Cape (southern 
 8), and there came to a stand against a desert 
 barrier. 
 
 Avifaunal areas show difference at once, and 
 Australia the sub-region is colour stamped. Map 
 2 presents seven colour groups and colour schemes, 
 the effect of moist or dry forests, and of variable 
 deserts. 
 
 In colour sorting of a large collection of birds 
 from all parts of the continent three ground plans 
 show. We see the rich metallic sheens of coastal 
 Queensland and Northern Territory, then the dull 
 grades of Victorian and Tasmanian coast land, and 
 very prominently the pale birds of area 3 (map 2). 
 Finally several ground tints of the varying areas 
 of country of the great balance of the Common- 
 wealth can be separated. A million pipits agree in 
 colour with these different areas of land upon 
 which they are living. 
 
 The colour pattern of the numberless sea birds 4 
 
 *An Australian Bird Book, col. pis.; 1911, J. A. Leach, D.Sc. 
 
14 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 3 
 
 The races of a species. 
 A B The Species. 
 
 A Small Race. 
 a' Stock. 
 a 2 Darker. 
 a' Paler. 
 a 4 Western influence on the species. 
 
 B Large Race, 
 b' Stock. 
 
 b 2 Island dark races in relation with 
 b 3 Pale race. 
 
 b 4 Island Race in relation with b 3 . 
 b 5 Western race. 
 b6 South Western race. 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 along our northern coast is distinctly aesthetic, 
 when compared with the sombre hues of as many 
 million petrels that fringe the southern coasts. 
 
 Of the birds of Australia there are, say, eight 
 hundred species with innumerable variations. 
 Some of these latter may be considered races, and 
 they are important in the ornis of this land. Take 
 for example the species A B in map 3. A is the 
 northern race, because all the thousands of it are 
 smaller than B, those of the southern half of the 
 continent. In each case the westward trend has 
 taken the birds into western influences of food and 
 air, and has changed their plumages. The colour 
 pattern will mostly remain, while the intensity of 
 colour will lessen and alter. This is noticeable in 
 a 3 of the race A, which comes under the paling 
 effect of light desert air. A and B so carefully 
 change in Southern Queensland as to be the inter- 
 grades. 
 
 In map 4, species A B is one example with eight 
 races; Yellow-tailed Tit- Warbler (Acanthiza chry- 
 sorrhoa). Its southern expansion is a d, and its 
 western margin e h. 
 
 While the birds of the southern line grow larger 
 and darker, those of the same species of the western 
 margin grow lighter, with elimination of certain 
 plumage characters. The first line is in the damp 
 belt, the second in the dry one, with an effect so 
 gradual, yet so definite, as to give us birds at a d. 
 
16 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 4 
 
 An example of many broadly distributed birds with 
 * races (Yellow-tail Tit- Warbler) . 
 
 Species A B Races a- h. 
 
 a. Smallest and Palest. 
 
 b. c. Intergrades. 
 
 d. Largest and Dullest. 
 
 e. Lower Murray River 1 
 
 f. Port Augusta. ? aces * radms 
 
 g. Flinders Range. I *T f rk to 
 h. Northern Australia. J duU plumage 
 
 j. Darker than h, due to moist coastal influence. 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 h d different in their colour though similar in their 
 colour scheme. These are parallel lines of plumage 
 tint, one of which is subject to the darkening 
 influence of the coastal ranges, and the other to 
 the tendency directly or by natural selection to 
 take out colour. 
 
 This is the main influence of the salt bush and 
 other scrub lands between the Cloncurry and 
 Wakool tracts. The tendency to lose colour from 
 e to h is checked at j. Here we have the rapidly 
 changed conditions of a mangrove coast : a portion 
 of tidal vegetation extending four thousand miles 
 along the northern fringes (map 2). 
 
 This brackish-mud feature is the outer line of 
 other types of country. In the west, between the 
 Ashburton and Gascoyne districts, there is an 8 
 inch annual rainfall, the dry belt extending inland 
 a thousand miles. This is the barrier to the per- 
 manent northern species passing into south-west 
 Australia, and for those of the south going north 
 to the Kimberley country ; rich in grass and insects. 
 Such a bird as the bush lark (Mirafra h 1 h* h 3 , map 
 5) will hold its own in a parched province by 
 agreeing in colour with its earth. The severe and 
 varying food conditions of the northern country 
 between the Ord and Flinders Rivers reacts on the 
 frame of the bird by reducing it (b in map 5). As 
 the same species is found south, the body is of 
 larger proportion. The colour acting in an opposite 
 
18 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 5 
 
 Some features of Australian Birds. 
 
 a. Tasmanian forms are inclined to be larger than 
 
 those of the same species on the mainland. 
 
 b. Size decreases from south to north in same species, 
 
 e.g. Red-browed Finch. 
 
 c. Colour increases in intensity from south to north, 
 
 e.g. Yellow Robin. 
 
 c 1 Eopsaltria australis. 
 c 2 E. chrysorrhous. 
 c 3 E. magnirostris. 
 
 d. Mountain colours are darker than those of the 
 
 same species on the drier interior, e.g. Rufous 
 breasted Whistler (Pachycephala rufiventris). 
 
 e. Sunken portion of a continent severing the same 
 
 types of birds between f and f, e.g. Bristle bird 
 
 (Sphenura). 
 g. A desert 8 inch rainfall as a barrier to certain 
 
 birds. Birds coloured in keeping with the soil, 
 
 e.g. Mirafra h< h 2 h*. 
 j. A present day connecting link, Nullabor Plain. 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 direction increases in intensity southward. This 
 is well shown in the east to west direction, (d map 
 5), by examining a series of Rufus-breasted 
 Whistler (Pachycephala rufiventris). The moun- 
 tain chain divides the darker race from the paler 
 race, the latter being subject to less humidity. 
 
 A long stretch of country between the great rift 
 valley and Eucla is composed of limestone, covered 
 by salt bush and blue bush. This is a feeble 
 connecting link, when compared with an earlier 
 geological age, between the birds of South and 
 West Australia. The Nullabor Plain, as the 
 country is known, is the present connecting link 
 of two avifaunal areas. 
 
 The distribution of certain species goes far 
 beyond Australia. A few are found east in 
 Polynesia, others north in the Phillipines group, 
 and a further number, with their close relatives, 
 in India (a, b, c, map 6). Shown as follows our 
 birds are : 
 Land : A. Internal. The thousand species and 
 
 races truly Australian A 1 Forest, A 2 Grassed 
 
 Plain, A 8 Partial Desert. 
 
 B. External. Extra Australian migratory 
 
 birds. 
 Sea : C. Vast colonies of petrel and gull families 
 
 that rest on the mainland islands and live at sea. 
 
 Apart from distribution we have on a large scale, 
 migration; the coining in from Siberia in Septem- 
 
20 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 6 
 Broad Distribution. 
 
 a. Black-cheeked Falcon (F. melanogenys). 
 
 a 1 Snipe (Gallinago australis). 
 
 a 2 White-rumped Swift (Micropus pacificus). 
 
 a 3 Whimbrel (Numenius variegatus). 
 
 b. Shrike Thrushes (Colluricincla). 
 Sacred Kingfisher (Halcyon sanctus). 
 
 c. Cuckoo Shrikes (Graucalus). 
 
 Grass Owl (Tyto longimembris) not S.W.A. 
 
 d. Crested Penguin (E. chrysocome). 
 
 Arrows indicate direction of nesting islands. 
 
INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 her of a million birds. They are not truly 
 Australian, though they live with us during six 
 months of the year. 
 
 The young are reared in Northern Asia, and 
 brought as far south as Tasmania to get away from 
 the northern locking up of food. 
 
 Apart from this great migrating stream, a 1 a 2 a :j 
 map 6), there are minor doings in travel as under: 
 Daily migration : 1. Up and down valleys (New 
 
 South Wales). 2. From range to sea (Queens- 
 land). 
 Bathic migration : Plains to higher mountains 
 
 (Spring-autumn). 
 Partial migration : Annual e.g., Southern Victoria 
 
 to Northern New South Wales. 
 Periodic migration : Subject to droughts and 
 
 plagues. 
 
 Accidental migration : Internal and external. 
 Extra Australian : Within the Australasian Region 
 
 e.g., from Port Augusta to New Guinea and 
 
 islands. 
 
 Migration beyond Australia has its reverse side, 
 as shown in map 7. A truly marvellous silent mass 
 of life sweeps down from China and Transbaikalia 
 into the Malay Peninsula and New Guinea after the 
 summer of the northern hemisphere. This is in 
 July. Also at that time thousands of southern 
 Australian birds, wintering in New Guinea, leave 
 
22 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 7 
 Reverse Migration. 
 
 A Southern Siberian and Chinese hirds go to 
 Malay Archipelago "a" to winter (Dec.). 
 
 B Southern Australian birds, b 1 , go to Malay 
 Archipelago, b, to winter (June). 
 
INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 New Guinea to travel south, either to the great 
 gold-fields of Western Australia, the copper-fields 
 of South Australia, or the country of the ancient 
 sea of North-West Victoria. It is in September; 
 their nesting season. 
 
 Next March the numberless flocks will move 
 north again to New Guinea, just as the Chinese 
 birds in New Guinea move back to their own plots 
 in China, to nest. 
 
 QUEENSLAND AND NORTHERN 
 TERRITORY 
 
 Areas 1, 2, 3 7 1 , 7 2 , 7 3 
 
 The State of Queensland is marvellously rich in 
 shore birds. This is due to its thousand miles of 
 adjacent coral reef, and good feeding grounds. Sea 
 birds and waders mass. On land there is a tropical 
 and an extra tropical fauna, each again being 
 divided into dry country and coast line faunas 
 (Map 8). 
 
 Queensland has a great annual immigration of 
 birds from Papua, and a large emigration of another 
 set to Southern Australia. In the Spring and 
 Autumn, clouds of oversea migratory species pass. 
 Examples of migration are as follows: 
 Extra Australian Siberia to Tasmania, annually 
 via Queensland. 
 
24 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 8 
 
 a. Small forms of southern species b; also the strong- 
 
 hold of the finches. 
 
 b. Species begin to blend with those of the same 
 
 species (larger race) further south. 
 
 c. Mountain influences: west (paler): east (darker). 
 
 d. Interior and paler species. 
 
 e. Migration route to South Australia ^ From 
 
 f. Migration route to New South Wales J Papua 
 
 g. A vast ocean-reef avifauna. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 25 
 
 Trans-Continental New Guinea to Spencer Gulf, 
 
 S.A. 
 Annual and regular in the State North and South, 
 
 both coastal and inland. 
 Periodic and irregular West to East in time of 
 
 big drought. 
 Nomadic in the Western part of the State in times 
 
 of minor droughts. 
 Coastal insular: summer season. 
 
 So far as Australia is concerned, luxurious 
 Queensland has sent over a large number of its 
 species. Thus population has got to Victoria in 
 the south, and the Northern Territory in the west. 
 Out from this right angle a number of desert birds 
 have gained their origin. They are the Eyrean 
 species or races, while the coastal birds are the 
 line of Tasmanian species. 
 
 In such a season as the present one, Queensland 
 is magnificently grassed, and the Grass Finches 
 multiply to an extent that gives a special feature 
 to the fauna of the Commonwealth. 
 
 A dry spell coming, these great flocks make for 
 higher ground with water and food. The water 
 sheds are so arranged in the inner part of the 
 north-eastern half as to be an asylum for millions 
 of birds in dry seasons, and to an extent we can 
 scarcely realise. They come in from the Diamen- 
 tina, Thomson, Barcoo and Warrego parched 
 country, sadly worn and needing the change. 
 
26 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 9 
 A Great Coral-reef: approximate limits of its birds. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 27 
 
 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 9) 
 
 Innumerable shoals of small brightly-coloured 
 fish pass in and out of coral reefs, being ever 
 hunted by larger fish below, and graceful diving 
 birds above. 
 
 Great flocks of a black looking tern (Anous 
 stolidus), always on the watch, keep close and ever 
 active in attack. The wonder is, that little fish 
 have any peace. 
 
 Pelicans, White Reef-Herons, and Ospreys, 
 however friendly, are intensely hungry things. 
 Sandpipers, Godwits, Oyster-catchers and Night 
 Herons are numerous in the landscape. Sandal- 
 wood is useful to bird and man. While mangrove 
 fringes the water, the Mangrove Kingfisher gives 
 pretty movement to it. Thousands of Nutmeg 
 Pigeons regularly roost in it; and whose monoton- 
 ous note is broken by the screechings of as many 
 Lorikeets (Trichoglossus novae-hollandise). The 
 white pigeons densely "blossom" the mangroves 
 so as to give a most delightful picture along the 
 reefs. Usually a Flying Fox is all that sees the 
 charming sight of a long green belt in feathered 
 snowy bloom. 
 
 Frigate-Birds, Sooties and Stints know these 
 atolls and reefs, while the White-rumped Wood 
 Swallow and Doves from the mainland rest upon 
 their low herbage, and cocoanut palms. Pandanus 
 palms also give sanctuary to nesting birds. 
 
28 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 10 
 Affinity of Cape York Peninsula and New Guinea. 
 
 a. Blue-breasted Pitta (P. mackloti). 
 
 b. Noisy Pitta (P. versicolor). 
 
 b 1 Greater N.P. } Southern extension 
 b 2 Lesser N.P. J of family 
 
 c. Rainbow Pitta (P. iris) western extension. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 29 
 
 Along the coral beaches the Sea Terns gather 
 shells to make the name of nest. Some birds 
 appear aesthetic enough to gather the more attract- 
 ive shells. 
 
 The northern Gannets are numerous on the sand 
 banks in spring, where they nest in rookeries. 
 These are the vegetated coral-sand banks with 
 growing pig-face, coarse grass, and low shrubs. 
 
 If disturbed, thousands of Terns will rise in a 
 vast flock, leaving more thousands of young upon 
 the ground. Early in the morning the parent birds 
 go out to fish as a matter of food supply. 
 
 This mass of species is distributed very much 
 as shown in Map 9. The strait between the islands 
 of Bali and Lombok is not a barrier to sea birds 
 as it has proved with land birds. 
 
 AFFINITY OF CAPE YORK PENINSULA 
 
 AND NEW GUINEA 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 31; Plate 2, Fig. 7) 
 
 New Guinea is an island of more than ordinary 
 interest, because of its position and mountain 
 chains. 
 
 Eucalyptus forests stamp it as partly Australian 
 and Birds of Paradise connect it with Cape York. 
 
 New Guinea has so large a list of wonderful 
 birds as to be a little world in itself. When one 
 considers the rich river flats, the hill slopes covered 
 
30 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 11 
 
 New Guinea the birth-place of Australian 
 Ant-Thrushes (Pittidae): and broken dis- 
 tribution of the family. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 31 
 
 by very varied vegetarian, and the snow capped 
 ranges, it is readily judged to contain most inter- 
 esting things in feathered life. 
 
 There are representatives of the Cassowary of 
 Queensland, and there are the zoologically famous 
 Australian mound building birds and the Sun birds. 
 
 It abounds in colour and picturesque form, and 
 is filled with the species of economic value that a 
 country rich in vegetable products needs. 
 
 Certain of these useful birds pass backwards and 
 forwards between Papua and Cape York Penin- 
 sula. There is the White Ibis, closely related to 
 the Egyptian species, and the Spoonbill. 
 
 There are the Topknot and Nutmeg Pigeons, 
 Bee-eater, Drongo Shrike, Channel-bill Cuckoo, 
 the Black Cuckoo (Eudynamis) and the elegant 
 White-tailed Kingfisher that nests in ant hillocks. 
 
 Pigeons feed largely on the fruits of the native 
 fig. They are to be heard in the higher branches, 
 though scarcely seen through the tangle of the 
 under foliage. Thousands of birds on the ground 
 beneath this leafy dome of thousands of acres make 
 it their daily business to collect the fruits the 
 "wasteful" pigeons drop. It is a world above a 
 world, or a feathered stratum densely living above 
 a ground stratum, equally alive and without much 
 knowledge of its fellow. The law of mutual aid 
 unconsciously is applied. 
 
 The Pittas or ant thrushes are amongst the most 
 finely coloured tropic birds, and map 1 (a) indicates 
 
32 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 12 
 
 Distribution of Australian Swifts (A). 
 Swiftlets (B). 
 
 a 1 Nesting ground of Fork-tailed Swift (Micropus 
 
 pacificus). 
 a 2 Nesting ground of Spine-tailed Swift (C. cauda- 
 
 cuta). 
 a 3 Winter home of a 1 and a 2 . 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 33 
 
 Papua as the recent birth-place of the Australian 
 forms. 
 
 WIDE DISTRIBUTION OF A FAMILY 
 
 In maps 1 and 11 we have a highly coloured and 
 dense forest family, very broadly distributed along 
 three continents. 
 
 The Blue-breasted Pitta is common to New 
 Guinea and Cape York Peninsula, keeping to the 
 hot- rich, vine-scrub, feeding on shell snails and 
 worms. 
 
 The Rainbow and Noisy Pittas have their dis- 
 tribution as in Map 10. 
 
 The ant thrushes are a very old family judging 
 by their dissimilarity of colour in Australia and by 
 their isolation in West Africa. It is a little difficult 
 to link Africa with India, and get the continuity. 
 We have a similar case of a blue jay in Eastern 
 Asia being practically the same as the one in 
 Western Europe with no blue jay between. There 
 is also the case of the Bristle-Birds in Southern 
 Australia. Probably in all cases the original 
 stock disappeared leaving the blank and the arms. 
 The pittas in Australia are the latest extension 
 from their birth-place in New Guinea. 
 
 Dense, hot, moist cane brakes are what the 
 family prefer, and the tangle is almost impene- 
 trable. 
 
 There are some fifty known species of which we 
 
34 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 13 
 
 A Australian Starling (Aplonis metallica) Moluccas 
 
 and Queensland. 
 B Rifle birds. 
 
 b 1 Magnificent Rifle Bird (P. magnifica). 
 
 b 2 Victoria Rifle Bird (P. victoriae). 
 
 b 3 The Rifle Bird (P. paradisea). 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 35 
 
 have four in Australia, and the colours throughout 
 the family are blue, green, vivid scarlet, yellow, 
 purple, black and white. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF SWIFTS AND 
 SWIFTLETS IN AUSTRALIA 
 
 Tasmania is the southern limit and winter home 
 of two species of swifts (map 12). Of these the 
 "fork-tail" nests in Yakutsk, the centre of the 
 extensive fur trade of central Siberia, while the 
 "spine-tail" nests in Japan, Manchuria and Chosan 
 (Korea). 
 
 The swiftlets live mostly in the Malay Archi- 
 pelago about the Gulf of Carpentaria and the north- 
 eastern coast of Queensland. Convergent evolution 
 applies to swifts and swallows, while an examina- 
 tion of the hand and arm of each shows them not 
 to be at all related. The swift has a long hand 
 and a short arm, the swallow the opposite. 
 
 The Swifts are remarkably fine fliers and great 
 insect eaters : feeding while on the wing. Their 
 work is to reduce the swarms that spend the adult 
 period of life high in the air. It is a fine provision 
 of nature for certain species to feed on one plane 
 and others elsewhere. A law for prevention of 
 overlapping is found among the pasture feeding 
 birds and the bush birds. Each pair patrols its own 
 area in nesting season. 
 
 The swifts work through the law of mutual aid 
 3 
 
36 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 14 
 Range of the Frogtnouth (Podargus strigoides). 
 
 A Tawny Frogmouth (Southern race) and its sub- 
 races. 
 
 B Freckled Frogmouth (Northern race) and its 
 sub-races. 
 
 a Tawny Frogmouth. 
 
 a 1 Northern Tawny Frogmouth. 
 
 a 2 Victorian Frogmouth. 
 
 a 3 Tasmanian Frogmouth. 
 
 a 4 Southern Frogmouth. 
 
 a 5 Westralian Frogmouth. 
 
 b Freckled Frogmouth. 
 
 b 1 Carpentaria Frogmouth. 
 
 b 2 Western Frogmouth. 
 
 b 3 Mungi Frogmouth. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 37 
 
 and by this means almost exterminate small 
 swarms of insects. 
 
 Swiftlet-nests in household economy are con- 
 sidered valuable as soup makers to an enormous 
 extent, and caves in oil bearing Borneo contain 
 tons. On the Lena River in Siberia the Russians 
 have a reverence for swifts because of their 
 economic value as destroyers of noxious insects. If 
 we ever wish to get to cross purposes with a 
 Cossack, it can be done by interfering with the 
 nests of a swift or swallow. The present writer 
 can truly say his one experience of this particular 
 form of anger just about cost him his life. 
 
 A. SHINING STARLING (Calornis) 
 
 B. THE RIFLE BIRD 
 
 A. The home of the Starling is shown in map 
 13, with an extension from the Solomon Islands to 
 the Moluccas, and south to New South Wales in 
 certain seasons. It is stationary, or it may migrate 
 between such attractive places as Cairns, Cardwell 
 and Rockingham Bay. A flock will then build a 
 colony of 50 to 300 pensile nests in the same cotton 
 tree, or fig tree. This species is the only native of 
 Australia of this old-world family. Even so it is 
 confined to the coastal scrub of a portion. India 
 and China are the headquarters of the family, 
 which includes the common starling now intro- 
 duced to Tasmania and the mainland. Fruit- 
 
38 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 15 
 
 Mound Builders (A B C), Emus (D), and 
 Cassowary (E): 
 
 A Scrub Fowl (Megapodius reinwardt). 
 B Brush Turkey (Alectura lathami). 
 C Mallee Fowl (Leipoa ocellata). 
 D Emus (Dromaius) d 1 d 2 d 3 Extinct. 
 E Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius). 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 39 
 
 growers find the family a mixed blessing. The 
 Buphaga, a similar bird, of Zululand and the Trans- 
 vaal is a valuable asset to that country in so far 
 as it regularly accompanies the cattle, devouring 
 the ticks. The Myna brought to Australia from 
 the Bombay Presidency and the Punjab is another 
 cheerful member. 
 
 B. The Rifle Birds are the Birds of Paradise map 
 13, b 1 b 2 b\ They form the section together with 
 Satin Bower Birds, that keep to the coastal scrubs, 
 in New Guinea a species is found to live at 9,000 
 feet above sea level : in Queensland at 4,000 feet. 
 The other section keeps to the dry portion of 
 Australia. 
 
 Humming Birds and Rifle Birds have no equal 
 as families dressed in the height of splendour and 
 wonderful cut of garment. 
 
 In Batchian they have been known for centuries 
 as Birds of the Gods. If we have ever seen gor- 
 geous metallic butterflies floating through the soft 
 air of a forest, sparkling like precious stones, we 
 may just imagine the same lovely thing, much 
 multiplied, in a forest of the Richmond River. 
 
 RANGE OF THE FROGMOUTH (Podargus 
 strigoides) IN TWO RACES 
 
 An examination of the broad beak of this twilight 
 bird at once indicates its kind. If we enquire for 
 the most common species we find it is the Tawny 
 shouldered with two races : a southern and a 
 
40 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 16 
 
 Home of Wood Pigeons and Fruit Pigeons 
 (Treronidac and Columbidae: ten species). 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 41 
 
 northern, falling in with one conspicuous way of 
 distribution of many of the Australian birds (map 
 14 A B). A walk along the Derwent or Tamar 
 Rivers, with a particularly observant eye, will show 
 the darker race. 
 
 In group B we have in the Cape York Peninsula 
 and about Croydon the smaller race which is again 
 divided into a paler race at Tennant's Creek, N.T. 
 
 The nearest relative of the genus outside Aus- 
 tralia lives in the Himalayas connecting with Aus- 
 tralia about Java. Here it lives along the margins 
 of the never ending rice fields. Frogmouths are 
 silent harmless useful birds. They perform their 
 serivces in orchard and forest in the gloaming as 
 most careful insect patrols. The bird and its nest 
 assimilate in colour closely with the tree, and can 
 scarcely be detected. Why is the young sometimes 
 rufous, giving us an hepatic phase? 
 
 MOUND BUILDERS AND EMUS 
 
 Plain coloured ground-birds may not attract like 
 Rifle Birds, but they are quite as interesting. Map 
 15, ABC, shows the distribution of the Mound 
 builders. Such a mass I have measured, with a 
 diameter of fourteen feet and a height of three: 
 composed of leafy rubbish with an immense amount 
 of heat within it. This is a self incubating nest 
 while the birds stand by acting as living thermo- 
 meters and removing the top sand or replacing it 
 
42 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 17 
 
 Races of the Bronzewing Pigeon 
 (Phaps chalcoptera). 
 
 a. Large sized race. 
 
 b. Small sized race. 
 
 c. Pale race. 
 
 d. Nesting ground in a good food season. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 43 
 
 as the temperature varies. Along Southern Aus- 
 tralia in a great belt of mallee timber the silent 
 Mallee Fowl is to be found. 
 
 In the north of the continent we have the Scrub 
 Fowl (Megapode) and parallel with the east coast, 
 as shown in the map the Jungle Turkey (Cathe- 
 turus.). 
 
 In family ways all three are much alike, the 
 young hatching out and flying the following day. 
 The eggs are specially large in order to supply 
 food to develop the feathers before the bird leaves 
 the egg to face the world. The Mallee Fowl lives 
 in that portion of the Commonwealth which is dry 
 and hot while the other mound nesters for centuries 
 have occupied the moist, hot, coastal areas. 
 Originally they built in trees judging by their free 
 finger tips. 
 
 Emus keep out of the forest tangles while the 
 next of kin the Cassowary lives exclusively within 
 it on the Queensland coast. The Australian sub- 
 region has only this one of nineteen species. The 
 Papuan has the balance of which seven are found 
 on New Guinea and eleven on the small islands of 
 it. The geographical range of the only species of 
 Emu is over D, of map 15. Some few years ago 
 and in the memory of early explorers several other 
 species lived. The Tasmanian d 3 was the last to 
 go. About this time d 2 of King Island disappeared 
 and d 1 of Kangaroo Island. Those far away 
 islands, the Galapagos, have forty-two species of 
 
44 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 18 
 Rosella Group of Parrots. 
 
 A White cheeked Rosellas (Eastern representation) : 
 
 a. The Rosella (Platycercus eximius). 
 
 b. Tasmanian race of "a." 
 
 c. Darling Downs race of "a." 
 
 B Yellow cheeked Rosellas (Western representa- 
 tion). 
 
 d. Yellow cheeked Rosella (P. icterotis). 
 
 e. Dundas race of d. 
 
 f. Red mantled race of d. 
 C Blue cheeked Parrots: 
 
 g. Blue cheeked Parrot (P. cyanogenys). 
 h. Cooktown race of g. 
 
 i. Southern blue cheeked or Pale headed Parrot. 
 j. Pale rumped race of g (due to hot dry in- 
 fluence). 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 45 
 
 birds of which forty-one are not found elsewhere. 
 This useful insect eating bird of Australia has an 
 increasing number of enemies. The best provision 
 for its protection should be enforced. 
 
 HOME OF THE FRUIT PIGEON AND 
 WOOD PIGEON 
 
 The Nutmeg Pigeon is a remarkable bird and is 
 the great factor in the distribution of the nutmeg 
 seed. It migrates from New Guinea, and associates 
 on the islands off Queensland in nesting season. 
 During the evening hundreds of thousands settle 
 on the mangroves and palms. Next morning one 
 half of them fly rapidly across the sea to the moun- 
 tains of the mainland, to return each evening. The 
 sight of thousands of white birds rising together, 
 or fluttering in the green belt of timber, is a very 
 fine one. Hichinbrook Island is a favourite place 
 to witness the daily travel. It is a great nesting 
 site. The nest is a flimsy structure just as with 
 other pigeons. 
 
 The Topknot Pigeon, with a grey dress, is a more 
 southern bird, and as an occidental, has got as far 
 south as Tasmania. 
 
 The Red-crowned, Rose-crowned and Purple- 
 crowned Fruit Pigeons inhabit the luxurious humid 
 scrubs and unconsciously mimic the foliage of the 
 trees in which they live; dark greens and rich 
 purples. 
 
46 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 19 
 The White-shafted Fantail and its races: 
 
 a f Southern race. 
 g 1 g 2 Northern race, 
 h Central race. 
 
 a. White-shafted Fantail (Rhipidura flabelli- 
 
 fera). 
 
 b. Tasmanian race. 
 
 c. South Australian race. 
 
 d. Littoral Queensland race. 
 
 e. Central Queensland race. 
 
 f. West Australian race. 
 
 g 1 Northern Pheasant Fantail 
 
 g 2 Western Pheasant Fantail (paler division 
 
 of g'. 
 h. White-tailed race. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 47 
 
 The Tweed River scrubs and the Cardwell dis- 
 trict are favourite places with these birds, and fig 
 trees abound. The fruit of this tree (Ficus) is 
 their favourite food. High up in the branches, and 
 apparently in another world, the birds feed and 
 drop fruits far below to the ground-feeding birds 
 of distinctly other species. These species mostly 
 migrate annually between the Clarence River 
 district and Cape York. 
 
 The White-headed Pigeon is our true wood 
 pigeon, being found in New South Wales and 
 Queensland ; keeping to the dense moist hot scrubs 
 and living in the trees, eating figs. It builds high, 
 a feebly constructed nest, and lays one white egg. 
 
 RACES OF THE BRONZEWING PIGEON 
 
 The Bronzewing is a popular bird with sports- 
 men, though it is more interesting to those who 
 carry the field glass. The pleasure is continually 
 renewed. Map 17 shows "a," the area of distri- 
 bution of the largest sized race. As one goes north 
 to "b" the birds lessen in size, and we get the small 
 race. In the desert of the great interior and west- 
 ward, the colour of the ground has its effect upon 
 the plumage of the birds. It is paler. This is a 
 law in the distribution of Australian birds. If the 
 climate of Central Australia is good, and the rainy 
 season is just past, the pigeons will quickly extend 
 their range of distribution into it, feeding and 
 
AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 20 
 
 The Restless Flycatcher (Seisura inquieta), 
 and its geographical races: a <L 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 49 
 
 nesting at "d" till the next drought drives them 
 out. Where the native cherry (Exocarpus) grows, 
 they feed upon its fruit. Near the coast they 
 associate in the belts of banksia and "oke," having 
 a special love for the drier ridges of the open 
 country. We are on first acquaintance likely to 
 be confused by a species known as the Brush 
 Bronzewing, which keeps much more to the forest 
 country over the whole of the continent and 
 Tasmania. Pigeons raise as many as three broods 
 in a season, beginning to nest in September and 
 continuing to March. 
 
 THE WHITE-SHAFTED FANTAIL AND ITS 
 
 RACES 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 19) 
 
 There are three sections of this restless and 
 familiar fantail (map 18) : 
 
 A. Southern 
 
 B. Northern 
 
 C. Central 
 
 The southern bird amongst the great mass af birds 
 is best known by its friendly and fascinating ways, 
 and by its elegant nest. It is a model along its own 
 line of architecture; a most artistic structure. It 
 may well be compared with the bowl of a pipe, 
 tapering at the bottom to twice its own length. 
 Cobwebs are densely worked about it and a felted 
 symmetrical effect is the result. Then comes 
 
50 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 21 
 
 Distribution of the Kookaburras or Great 
 Kingfishers (Dacelo). 
 
 A Eastern race: 
 
 a Southern Great Kingfisher. 
 
 a 1 Northern Great Kingfisher. 
 
 a 2 Introduced into W.A. 1896 (a). 
 
 B Northern race: 
 
 b Blue -winged Great Kingfisher. 
 b 1 Fawn-breasted Great Kingfisher. 
 b 2 Mungi Great Kingfisher. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 51 
 
 along the houseless cuckoo and drops in a bronze 
 coloured egg, with the usual tragedy of the young 
 to follow. The Southern and Western forms of 
 "cranky fan" have white shafts to their tail 
 feathers; the western bird of the karri and jarrah 
 forests differing from the eastern in the paler 
 breast band. 
 
 In map 19, "f" we find the Tasmanian race of 
 darker plumage obeying the law of darker 
 plumage on islands of high latitude. 
 
 The Central Australian bird has its outer tail 
 feathers pure white, and it is found in the mulga 
 scrub about the creeks of the ranges, e.g. Mac- 
 donnell Range. It has the typical eccentric action 
 of flight, with a fan-like tail as it shoots out into 
 mid-air and twists about, promptly returning with 
 an insect captured on the wing. 
 
 The Northern Fantail is pheasant like in general 
 appearance.. The country it is partial to is 
 mangrove fringes, teeming with mosquitoes and 
 smaller insects. In the west, g 2 is a paler race of 
 f 1 . 
 
 THE RESTLESS FLYCATCHER AND ITS 
 
 RACES 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 20) 
 
 A reference to map 20 will show the "scissors 
 grinder" to be distributed all round Australia, but 
 not in Tasmania. The birds of Tasmania are so 
 
 3 
 
52 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 22 
 Distribution of the three large Cuckoos: 
 
 a. Pheasant Cuckoo (Centropus phasianus). 
 
 b. Channel-bill (Scythrops novae hollandiae). 
 
 b 1 Visitor to Southern Victoria and Tasmania. 
 
 c. Koel (Eudynamus orientalis). 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 53 
 
 closely related to those of the mainland as to be 
 practically the same species. But a large number 
 of species have never crossed over to the Island 
 State, owing to Bass Strait forming before they 
 commenced emigration. In the present day the 
 "grinder" rarely gets further south than the Great 
 Dividing Range in Victoria. 
 
 Why is it absent from Central Australia, except 
 for odd pairs in favourable seasons, is not so easily 
 explained. 
 
 Locality "b" has the smaller race of "a," while 
 "c" has the, paler race, and "d" the western race 
 of "a." 
 
 It is on first sight much like the common Black 
 and White Fantail or Shepherd's Companion. A 
 distinguishing difference in the plumage shows out 
 in the white of the whole under surface, including 
 the throat. The nest is built in the higher branches 
 of a tree, while the Shepherd's Companion builds 
 in the lower. The eggs are laid in September on to 
 December. 
 
 ROSELLA GROUP OF PARROTS 
 
 This group is a part of the broad-tail section of 
 parrots. Map 18 indicates the distribution of its 
 kind over Australia. There is an eastern, western 
 and northern set of rosellas, all of the same con- 
 struction with different colours in the same colour 
 schemes. They are friendly birds, nesting in the 
 
54 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 23 
 
 Distribution of: 
 
 A a. Red-headed Honey-eater (Myzomela san- 
 guinolenta) with races b.c.d. 
 
 B Spine-bill Honey-eater (Acanthorhynchus) 
 with races f. j. o. 
 
 C g. h. Bell Honey-eater (Manorhina me Ian - 
 phyrs). 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 55 
 
 hollows of the trees close by and feeding on the 
 scale insects and grass seeds of the bush. In dry 
 seasons they are a little harmful to the neighbour- 
 ing orchards, as fruit eaters. Their habitat is local 
 so that they learn their feeding grounds and change 
 them with the season. Winter will draw a con- 
 gregation of adjacent families, though not to the 
 extent of truly gregarious birds. 
 
 The northern section "c" of may 18 is paler than 
 the southern, which i*. a natural law in Australia; 
 but it is nor less attractive in its light blue plumage 
 and lemon head. The southern birds "a" are in 
 such great number, and consequently so familiar to 
 the eye, that we do not properly appreciate the 
 beauty of their suits of many colours. 
 
 The largest of the group is found along the 
 beautiful Derwent Valley of Tasmania. The first 
 of the group was discovered at Rose Hill near 
 Sydney, from which the twist in the name evolved. 
 
 KINGFISHERS (Kookaburra Races) 
 
 The Laughing Jackass, or Kookaburra, is more 
 properly termed the Great brown Kingfisher. In 
 the south "a" map 21, it is the largest of the family, 
 and the plainest. In the north a 1 , particularly 
 the Bloomfield River, it is the smallest, and with 
 more colour. To use another common name this 
 "bushman's clock" is a very friendly bird all 
 through the day, and believes in being early to 
 bed and early to rise. 
 
56 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 24 
 Grass Warblers (Cisticohe) : 
 
 A Extra Australian species. 
 B Australian races. 
 
 b. Grass Warbler (C. exilis). 
 
 b f . Northern race of Grass Warbler. 
 
 b*. Western race of Grass Warbler. 
 
 b 3 . Pallid race of Grass Warbler. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 57 
 
 As a utility bird it hangs somewhat in the 
 balance, killing useful lizards and stealing nestling 
 birds. As a set off against this we know that it 
 feeds on young snakes and yabbie crayfish. These 
 latter destroy an infinite amount of fish ova and 
 considerably damage irrigation channels. Its 
 popularity saves it ! 
 
 The northern form "b" is found on the Gascoyne 
 River in the west, with the paler race b 2 in the 
 drier area. These northern races are not nearly 
 so musical as the southern. They also differ in 
 their way of nesting, the large termite dwellings 
 of the tropics being bored into. The eggs are pure 
 white. The young in the first few weeks voice 
 their ancestors and learn more fully the lesson of 
 their parents. The following spring they have 
 accomplished the standard of their kind. 
 
 How the Kookaburra got into West Australia 
 we do not know, but it certainly came from the 
 south east of the continent as it bears the geo- 
 graphical stamp of that species. Mr. A. J. Campbell 
 considers it was introduced in 1896. 
 
 To the great interior it has not followed the 
 Halcyon. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF THREE LARGE 
 CUCKOOS 
 
 In these three we have more than map interest, 
 viz., conspicuous form, colour and habit. Map 22 
 shows the extent of country over which three 
 
58 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 25 
 
 The Ground Thrushes (Orcocincla) : 
 
 c. Australian Ground Thrush (O. lunulata). 
 
 a. Northern race. 
 
 b. Russet-tailed race. 
 
 d. Victorian race. 
 
 e. Tasmanian race. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 59 
 
 species of large cuckoos wander and fix their abode. 
 
 a. Pheasant Coucal : b. Channel Bill : c. Koel. 
 The Coucal is the only Australian cuckoo which 
 builds a nest and rears its young: the plumage of 
 such wonderful callow young that the world knew 
 in the adult stage centuries ago. It has long since 
 disapperaed. This truly owned nest is placed by 
 preference in rank grass, and the young are fed on 
 all sorts of things. 
 
 The Channel Bill is found in the Celebes and 
 very occasionally in Tasmania, so it has a wide 
 range. It also has several lines of migration. The 
 "flood bird" is the largest of our cuckoos with a 
 fondness for laying its eggs in the nests of the 
 Crow and Bell-Magpie. 
 
 Floods appear to be a governing factor in their 
 distribution, the natives in certain quarters speak- 
 ing of it as the flood bird. Although the Channel 
 Bills do not rear their young, they gather them 
 together in preparation for the migration flight, 
 simply saying good bye to crows and magpies for 
 that season. 
 
 The Koel, in the male sex, is a metallic black 
 cuckoo. The young in both sexes are black like 
 th male parent, which is most unusual. The hen 
 bird changes from black to brown. Sometimes it 
 is known as the brain fever bird. It is a little 
 trying in the tropical heat of the day to hear 
 nothing but the monotonous call of one animal. 
 
60 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 26 
 The Coach-whip Birds (Psophodcs). 
 
 a. Coach-whip Bird (P. olivaceus). 
 
 b. Lesser Coach- whip Bird, race of a. 
 
 c. Black-throated Coach-whip Bird (P. nigrogu- 
 
 laris). 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 61 
 
 Everything else is apparently in the shelter of the 
 shade. 
 
 The Wood-Swallow (Artamus sordidus), found 
 also in Tasmania where there is no koel, is one of 
 the foster parents to other cuckoos. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF CERTAIN HONEY- 
 EATERS 
 
 A. Scarlet-headed Honeyeaters. 
 
 B. Spine-bill Honeyeaters. 
 
 C. Bell Honey eater (Bell Bird), 
 
 The honey-eating family (Meliphagidse) is a 
 large Australian one noted for its brush tongue 
 and: A for colour, B for form, C for voice (map 
 23). Coastal honeyeaters live in sand-dune trees 
 bearing sweets-laden flowers. Mostly they live on 
 eucalypt blossoms which supply sweet liquid. 
 Many find insects in the teatree scrub (Melaleuca). 
 
 A. The red-headed is made up of two species and 
 
 several races b.c.d., one of which is confined 
 for the most part to mangrove inlets of the 
 sea. The southerly range is the Buffalo Mts. 
 and Eastern Gippsland. 
 
 B. The Cobbler's Awl is found on the mainland 
 
 along the eastern side. In Tasmania there is 
 an island race. The western representative 
 between Eyre Peninsula and Cape Leewin has 
 a white eyebrow. 
 
62 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 27 
 Gannets in Australian Waters. 
 
 A The Australian Gannet (Sula serrator). 
 B Equatorial Gannets. 
 
 Sula leucogaster Brown Gannet. 
 
 S. sula Red-legged Gannet. 
 
 S. dactylatra Masked Gannet. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 63 
 
 C. The Bell Miner is remarkable for its voice, the 
 sweetest notes of tinkling bells, "softer than 
 slumber and sweeter than singing/* It is the 
 wet forest bell-bird, while the bell-bird of the 
 dry forests is the Crested Bell-Bird (Oreoica). 
 Port Phillip is its further west, and the scrubs 
 of central-eastern Queensland its furthest 
 north. It loves the quiet of the gullies and 
 the damp timbered lowlands. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION of the GRASS WARBLERS 
 
 (Cisticolae) 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 24) 
 
 A. Extra Australian species. 
 
 B. Australian species. 
 
 The family is Indian and Australian. It is found 
 all over Australia, but not throughout the Island 
 State, Tasmania. It just touches the northern 
 coast and is found in the island fauna connecting 
 Tasmania and the mainland. Map 24 shows its 
 broad distribution. 
 
 As its name implies, it is a grass loving bird and 
 a particularly shy one. Each season of the year 
 it changes its plumage markings, so that it would 
 appear as if there were four species, instead of one 
 with seasonal phases. 
 
 The nesting ways of this bird are quite out of 
 the ordinary, the species being a tailor bird in so 
 far as it stitches together a few of the grass strands 
 
AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 C Howe 
 
 MAP 28 
 
 Birds of the Eastern Bassian Sub-region pass 
 northward through: 
 
 a- a 1 The Valley of the Snowy River. 
 
 a 2 The Pass leading into the Snowy River Valley. 
 
 b Passing along the coast up to the Shoalhaven 
 Valley where a 4 and b join forces. 
 
 a 3 , a 4 and b meet again in the Pitzroy Valley about 
 Rockhampton: many do not go so far. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 65 
 
 of the nests. This is not a fixed habit as many of 
 the nests are just as usual with birds. The eggs 
 are quite extraordinary, as they are bluish-green 
 with spots of brown. Very few of the Australian 
 birds lay bluish eggs ; a negligible quantity. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF THE GROUND THRUSH 
 
 (Oreocincla) 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 25) 
 
 This ground bird is a mountain thrush, more or 
 less confined to liberal rainfall. The bird hunts 
 for its food of snails and worms in the tangle of 
 the ground-vegetation, rarely coming to the open- 
 ings. Like the English Thrush it is brown and 
 lunated, and the young are just the same. It is 
 quite unusual for ordinary fledgings to have the 
 feather-image of their parents, as most young are 
 not born in the high stage of development of 
 thrushes. 
 
 The young are born in the late winter, about 
 the time of the Lyre Bird, and before seven-eighths 
 of other species. Their nest is not always of cradle 
 form, being a weighty though lovely structure on 
 a solid trunk of tree. It may be a musk (Olearia), 
 or a tea tree (Leptospermum) ; in Queensland more 
 likely a cedar. 
 
 Some naturalists say we have five species of 
 ground thrushes as shown in map 25. It is sure 
 to say, that D is a race of C. D is darker than C, 
 
AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 Relationships and Bathic Migration Routes: 
 
 A. Lowlands. 
 
 B. Highlands. 
 
 C. Coastal Plain. 
 
 D. Main Routes of Bathic migration. 
 . Rainfall (annual average). 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 67 
 
 which is generally so with all birds of these areas, 
 while "e" is the darker insular form of the main- 
 land. Island birds incline this way. The whole 
 family is low voiced, to be heard only in the tender 
 hours of the day, in the quiet of the close set scrub. 
 Mt. Lofty is the western limit of range of the 
 species. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF THE COACH-WHIP 
 BIRDS 
 
 In map 26 we have a long drawn distribution of 
 whip birds found within the great belts of high 
 forest trees. The northern form "b" grows larger 
 as it gets south to "a," and takes on a new plumage 
 feature as it goes west, being black on the throat. 
 This we should note is not the customary way of 
 western species, because they have ceased to be 
 eastern. The whip-crack is to be heard in most 
 of the tangled ground scrub. The long series 
 leading to the main notes is made by male and 
 female. They get much joy out of their morning 
 game of down and up the supple-jacks, lasting an 
 hour or more, along a dead bough in the everlasting 
 green. 
 
 The National Reserve of the Bunya Mountains 
 we hope will be an eternal sanctuary. 
 
 The eggs of this crested whip-bird are of the 
 
 palest delicate blue green. The eggs of another 
 
 crested bird the Wedge-bill (Sphenostoma), also 
 
 are of the most delicate pale green. This latter 
 
 I 
 
AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 30 
 Highest nesting altitudes in Eastern Australia. 
 
 a. 5,000ft. Spine-billed Honey-eater (Acanthorhyn- 
 
 chus). 
 
 b. 4,000ft. Yellow Robins (Eopsaltria). 
 
 c. 4,500ft. Grey Bell-Magpie (Strepera). 
 
 d. 5,000ft. Flame-breasted Robin (Petroeca). 
 
 e. 6,000ft. Shrike Thrushes (Colluricincla). 
 
 f. 7,000ft. Pipit (Anthus). 
 
 g. 3,000ft. Fire-tailed Finch (Zonaeginthus). 
 
 The Grebe on Lake Titicaca, Sth. Amer. nests at 
 12,000ft., and a Humming Bird on Cotopaxi at 
 16,000ft. 
 
QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 69 
 
 species lives in a thousand miles of parched coun- 
 try parallel to the 1,000 miles of country shown in 
 map 26. Both are conspicuously different to all 
 other birds, and to each other, making the colour 
 of their eggs more than passing interest. 
 
 The Coach-whips love the glens far from the 
 haunts of men, and communion is mostly with 
 those dairy maids on the outposts. 
 
 GANNETS IN AUSTRALIAN WATERS 
 
 A. The Australian Gannet 
 
 B. Equatorial Gannets 
 
 The very similar species in the European waters 
 is known as the Solan Goose, though it has no 
 goose like leading characters. Both are web-footed. 
 The gannets fish in many seas and we have four 
 species in three oceans. Map 27 shows one kind 
 in the southern ocean, and three on the western, 
 northern and eastern shores. In winter they enter 
 the bays to follow the shoals of fish, which they 
 capture by diving perpendicularly through the air 
 from a great height. The stronghold of the south- 
 ern bird A is Bass Strait, while its most southerly 
 resting place is on the Mewstone Rock south of 
 Tasmania. This rock is the extreme southern end 
 of the Australian land shelf, and all that is left of 
 it. The largest of its rookeries is on the Flinders 
 Group, where 2,500 birds may be seen nesting in 
 October. Two eggs of beautiful blue entirely 
 
70 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 31 
 Sporadic Migrants. 
 
 a. Usual habitat. 
 
 b. Extended area. 
 
 Arrow denotes exit from drought area. 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 71 
 
 covered with lime are laid, one being incubated by 
 the male, the other by the female, and the young 
 of those eggs are cared for by each of the parents. 
 
 The young are naked and of a lead colour. When 
 feathered they are conspicuously mottled in the 
 way of their ancestors and make a strong contrast 
 to the white of the parents. A second brood is 
 hatched out in February. 
 
 The Masked Gannet breeds on Norfolk Island, 
 and feeds on flying fish. The serrated beak, which 
 is a recently acquired character, holds well. The 
 Red-legged Gannet nests on the Great Barrier Reef. 
 The Brown Gannet lays its eggs on Booby Island 
 in Torres Strait. 
 
 It is a most trustful and affectionate family of 
 sea birds. 
 
 NEW SOUTH WALES 
 
 Areas 3, 4, 7 3 , 7 4 
 
 Spring witnesses the inrush of a million birds 
 into New South Wales from Queensland, and the 
 passing south of a million others into Victoria. It 
 also gives an impulse to the birds at the mountain 
 feet to go up its valleys to the heights to nest. 
 
 The two lines of immigration from the north are 
 Eyrean of the plains and Torressian along the 
 mountains. 
 
 In an abnormal season there is an influx of vast 
 
72 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 32 
 
 Permanent Birds, e.g. 
 
 a. Albert Lyre Bird. 
 
 b. The Lyre Bird (Menura superba). 
 
 c. Victoria Lyre Bird. 
 
 a. b. c. Magpie Lark (Grallina). 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 73 
 
 myriads of feathered life from the dry west into 
 the eastern hills. That is the spasmodic west-east 
 irruption. This is in contradistinction to the regu- 
 lar annual bathic ascent to the higher levels of the 
 rivers and the plateaus. Autumn sees the return 
 of the birds from the Bassian or Victorian south, 
 into the plains of the Riverina. The cold of the 
 mountain heights is driving down the birds to the 
 lower levels again. 
 
 New South Wales is visited annually by migra- 
 tory birds from Papua, which come to nest, as well 
 as by species from Siberia which come to winter, 
 but not to nest. From the south, the coast of New 
 South Wales is visited by vast numbers of sea 
 birds which pass northward in the winter, on their 
 way to the "far east" (Chosan). 
 
 The rich western half of New South Wales, being 
 subject to drought, demands a sweeping exodus of 
 birds for a year or two together. The compensating 
 balance is a flood, when hundreds of millions flock 
 back to what is now one of the richest centres in 
 the world ; with an abundance of food and water 
 for the birds. 
 
 There is also an annual migration from the north 
 which would be diverted in this time of drought, 
 or the birds would pass through into Victoria and 
 eat up everything, thus destroying the balance. 
 
 The distribution of the birds of New South 
 Wales is more variable than with any other portion 
 of the continent of Australia. These are the repre- 
 
74 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 38 
 
 Migrating birds with approximate lines of Right. 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 75 
 
 sentatives of the three great zoological sub-regions 
 of Australia proper, as shown in Map 29. 
 
 Then there is the annual migration of these 
 species from any one of these sub-regions into a 
 second one, to the extent that birds of the Bassian 
 sub-region, in the northern portion, pass northward 
 to winter in northern New South Wales (Eyrean 
 sub-region). This is while they pass from the 
 southern Eyrean (N.S.W.) into the northern 
 Eyrean (Queensland) to winter. 
 
 A third horizon of interest is the Bathic (map 
 29, 30), the passing of lowland birds into the area 
 of 5,000 ft. to 7,000 ft., to nest in summer snow 
 storms. Apart from this we see from time to time 
 two to seven years sporadic migration on a 
 large scale. 
 
 And we have the birds purely local in the dry 
 Eyrean, as well as those local in the moist Bassian 
 forests. 
 
 It may be said in the matter of extension of dis- 
 tribution that a species of bird has : 
 
 A A portion of the continent in which to winter 
 B A portion of the continent in which to summer. 
 C A portion of the continent in which to summer 
 and to winter (local). 
 
 It is very much dependent on the season and 
 local food supply whether or not a species will 
 extend its area for that season, or a cycle of years. 
 Such a bird as the Magpie, coming under neither 
 A nor B is constant to its stretch of country the 
 
76 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 34 
 
 a. Irregular Migrant. 
 
 b. Fixed Location. 
 
 a Regent Bird (Sericulus). 
 
 a 1 Regent Bird Northern Extention. 
 
 a 2 Regent Bird Southern Extention. 
 
 b Pilot Bird (Pycnoptilus). 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 77 
 
 whole twelve months and will die through shortage 
 of grubs rather than shift to another part of the 
 country. 
 
 The Regent Bird e.g., generally a fixed inhabitant 
 of the country between the Tweed and Hawkes- 
 bury Rivers, will once in fifty years make its way 
 north to the Mackenzie River, or south to Bega. 
 It is abnormal distribution, and must not be set 
 down to regular occupancy of larger areas. 
 
 SPORADIC MIGRATION 
 (Plate 2, Fig. 54) 
 
 This form of migration is due mostly to reduction 
 of food through drought. Rats and mice will leave 
 Queensland for the plains of northern Victoria, and 
 the Grass Owl will follow in thousands, though 
 not in flocks. Even so, they are the silent birds of 
 the night, born for the purpose of checking waste- 
 ful and cancerous mice. 
 
 For similar reasons, in relation to insects, the 
 Oriental Cuckoo will leave its usual haunts in 
 northern Queensland for New South Wales (Map 
 31). The great interior droughts of 1902, 1907 and 
 1919 have been the cause of tremendous eruptions. 
 On 12/6/02 thousands of ibises were seen flying 
 south to the Murray River Lakes (D. Le Souef). 
 In 1907 thousands of Wood Swallows (Artamus 
 personatus and A. superciliosus) left the interior 
 for eastern New South Wales (H. L. White), i.e. 
 
78 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 35 
 
 Internal Migration and Eastern Distribution: 
 e.g. Chats (Ephthianura). 
 
 2. Approximate North and South migration limits of 
 
 the White-fronted Chat (E. albifrons). 
 
 3. Summer home of Tricoloured and Orange 
 
 fronted Chats (E. tricolor and E. aurifrons). 
 
 4. Winter home of Tricoloured and Orange 
 
 fronted Chats. 
 
 5. Changed line of migration in drought season. 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 79 
 
 an Eyrean irruption into Northern Bassian. In 
 1918-19 thousands of Warbling Grass Parrots 
 (Melopsittacus undulatus) left the plains in the 
 drought for the hills, and hundreds of White Egrets 
 (Herodius timoriensis) left the inland creeks for 
 the coast (Edwards, Bega). The Painted Finch 
 (Emblema picta) left the interior and found its 
 way in large quantity to the Parramatta Basin. 
 
 The general trend of drought movements in New 
 South Wales is as follows : 
 
 A. To the Darling River; Upper reaches. 
 
 a 1 South from Queensland. 
 
 1. Red-winged Parrot (A. erythrops). 
 
 2. Flock Pigeon (H. histrionica). 
 
 a 2 From immediate drought area: White-Eye 
 (Zosterops dorsalis). 
 
 B. To all Downs e.g. Tricoloured chat. 
 
 C. From the West into the great Coastal Range: 
 
 e.g. 
 
 c 1 Talbragar District, Red Wattle Bird A 
 carunculata in vast numbers (T. P. 
 Austin). 
 
 c 2 Upper Hunter River District. 
 
 Red-backed Parrot (P. haematonotus). 
 
 Red-shouldered Grass Parrot (N. pul- 
 
 chella). 
 Cockatoo Parrakeet (C. novae hollandiae). 
 
 Emu viii., 1, p. 16, S.W. Jackson 
 
80 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 36 
 Distribution of: 
 
 1. A species and its races: A. North of the Blue 
 
 Mountains. 
 
 B. South of the Blue 
 Mountains. 
 
 2. A species without races b 1 b 2 Fire-tailed Finch 
 
 (Zonae gin thus). 
 
 A Rufous Shrike Thrush (Colluricincla rufigaster). 
 a 1 Pale inland race (fawn coloured). 
 a 2 Small northern race. 
 a 3 Minute race. 
 
 B Crescent Honey-eater (Meliornis pyrrhoptera) . 
 b 1 Southern race. 
 b 2 Tasmanian race. 
 b 3 Kangaroo Island race. 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 81 
 
 D. From northern New South Wales in December 
 drought into central Queensland. Tens of 
 thousands of Native Hens (M. ventralis) erupt 
 and eat out the tender grass of all dam- 
 frontages, leaving quietly in a mass a few 
 months later. 
 
 PERMANENT SPECIES 
 (Plate 2, Fig. 74) 
 
 Certain birds, e.g., the Lyre Bird, are thoroughly 
 fixed to their place of birth. Others, as the Bell- 
 Bird, are slightly nomadic when the food gives out, 
 while the Magpie-Lark will temporarily move 
 beyond its close range. 
 
 There are forests in which many species may be 
 seen at any time of the year. Take for example the 
 Macpherson Range in the north, and we may find 
 at any time the Scrub Wren (Atrichornis), Olive 
 Whistler (P. olivaceus), and Pilot Bird (Pycnop- 
 tilus.) In the south at Bega we will at all times 
 of the year see the Black and White Fantail, the 
 White-backed Magpie and the Noisy Miner. 
 
 By dividing the forests of the Coast Range into 
 three parts we find three species of Lyre Birds, 
 each permanently fixed in its area. 
 
 It is rather wonderful that thousands of migra- 
 tory birds pass along- and beyond these forests 
 twice a vear, 
 
82 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 37 
 Coastal Distribution. 
 
 e.g. Topknot Pigeon (Lopholaimus). 
 
 a. Northern race. 
 
 b. Stronghold of species. 
 
 c. Extension of range; numerically weak. 
 
 d. Sporadic distribution. 
 
 e. Normal western range of the species. 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 83 
 
 MIGRATION THROUGH THE AUSTRALIAN 
 REGION (North South) 
 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 6: Plate 2, Fig. 61) 
 
 The wonderful birds that come in the spring, or 
 pass through to the south, appeal to us. They nest 
 on the Polar tundra in June July in the greatest 
 swamps of the world, and feed in our lagoons 
 during October March. 
 
 Other series nest in Manchuria and Japan, 
 coming south in much the same way and time. 
 The arrivals are fairly regular: 
 
 August-September: Snipe (Gallinago australis). 
 
 October: Little Stint (Limonites ruficollis). 
 
 Tasmania is the highest southern latitude, and 
 the Stint is found in the extreme southern portion. 
 In map 33 several lines of migration are shown. 
 
 PARTIAL MIGRANTS 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 34) 
 
 There are many examples of birds which travel 
 short distances. Some are bathic and others 
 coastal. In the first case we have the Pied Robin 
 (Petroica bicolor), which ascends from the valleys 
 to Monara heights, and nests in February. In map 
 34 we have an example less common, viz., the 
 Regent Bower Bird (Sericulus). The Clarence 
 River district is its stronghold, while in a season 
 like that of 1919 it may be found as far south as 
 
84 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 38 
 
 Stationary bird; not migratory, 
 e.g. Tippet Grebe. 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 85 
 
 Bega, and as far north as the Mackenzie River. 
 Before civilisation changed the face of the earth 
 it was regularly found about Port Jackson. 
 
 Bower Birds are amongst the most wonderful 
 animals of the world by reason of their play- 
 grounds, their remarkable colours, and the pic- 
 turesque marking of their eggs. 
 
 INTERNAL MIGRATION AND 
 
 DISTRIBUTION 
 
 . 
 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 7: Plate 3, Fig. 93: Plate 2, Fig. 35) 
 
 Migration and distribution are very different and 
 equally variable. With our Bee-eaters, Rollers, 
 Kingfishers and Cuckoos, the migration covers a 
 distance of two thousand miles, and is within the 
 Commonwealth. The sub-regional or State migra- 
 tion is the real internal and much shorter flight. 
 Both return to the same place they nested in the 
 previous year, the strongest going further south. 
 They are those born in the higher latitudes and are 
 more robust. Halcyon, the wood kingfisher, arrives 
 in Victoria generally in October. Millions of birds 
 pass between Queensland and Victoria in Spring 
 and Autumn. 
 
 The exodus from New South Wales Eyrean to 
 Queensland Eyrean is an irregular internal migra- 
 tion due to drought. The Bustard will miss its 
 usual nesting season in July August in its own 
 territory of New South Wales and lay in January 
 
86 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 LJ / 
 
 MAP 39 
 Quail. 
 
 a. Brown Quail (Synoicus australis)] 
 Little Quail (Turnix velox) I < 
 
 and other turnices. J Austraua ' 
 
 b. Tasmanian Brown Quail. 
 
 c. Stubble Quail (Coturnix pectoralis) ) Over Australia 
 Painted Quail (Turnix varia) f and Tasmania. 
 c 1 Eruption of c from Central Australia in 
 
 drought. 
 
 d. King Quail (Excalfactoria chinensis). 
 
 e. Plain Wanderer (Pedionomus) . 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 87 
 
 March in the north. The majority of internal 
 species in extreme circumstances will make east- 
 wards to the mountains, or to the tributaries of 
 the great rivers. If e.g. the Yellow-tufted Honey- 
 eater (Ptilotis melanops) refuses to go, the starva- 
 tion roll is heavy. 
 
 The White-fronted Chat (E. albifrons) may be 
 a stationary or a partial migrant. In time of 
 drought a portion of the birds in their northern 
 limit will, before facing the south, deflect their 
 course to the east by south (e.g. 5 Map 35), and 
 summer in large numbers just north of the Blue 
 Mountains. They have been known to do this 
 in June, and nest in thousands. A flock of 250 
 will arrive in the south-west of the State from 
 southern Victoria. 
 
 Map 35 shows the range of the various species of 
 chats. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION of 
 
 1. A species and its races. 
 
 2. A species without races. 
 
 1. Races shown in Map 36 may be: 
 
 A. Those found north of the Blue Mountains 
 
 B. Those found south of the Blue Mountains 
 A good example of A is the Shrike Thrush (C. 
 
 rufigaster), which grows less in size the further 
 north it lives. An example of B is the Crescent 
 Honeyeater (L. australasiana). 
 
88 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 40 
 Eastern Magpies, 
 a. b. c. White-backed Section, 
 d. e. Black-backed Section. 
 
 a. Small race of b. 
 
 b. Large race of a. 
 
 c. Intermediate between a b. 
 
 d. The larger race. 
 
 e. The smaller and brighter race. 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 89 
 
 2. The north and the south have their species 
 without sub-species : 
 
 2 1 Masked Owl a 1 a 2 a 3 
 
 2 2 Fire-tail Finch b 1 b 3 
 
 The owl keeps to the long stretches of grass-land; 
 this species of finch to the forests of the coast. 
 They both have separate utility duties of high 
 economic value. Finches are of the type born 
 helpless, and with brilliant mouth parts to serve 
 as a guide to the parent when placing a grub in the 
 mouth. The nest is dark within. 
 
 COASTAL DISTRIBUTION AND COASTAL 
 MIGRATION 
 (Plate 3, Fig. 85) 
 
 In Map 1 we see that the coastal distribution of 
 New South Wales birds is divided in the vicinity 
 of Port Hacking. Map 37 gives the Top-Knot 
 Pigeon as an example of a species with a continuous 
 distribution over the two coastal sub-regions a, b, 
 Eastern Torressian, c, d, Eastern Bassian. So far 
 as d is concerned it is simply sporadic from c. 
 
 A second direction of expansion is shown in the 
 dotted lines from "a" of map 37. This is the case 
 with the Pheasant Pigeon, and these two species 
 help to show the two principal lines of expansion 
 of the Australian birds from York Peninsula. In 
 the northern portion of this sub-regional division 
 
90 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 41 
 
 Inland Distribution: Seed Eating Parrots and 
 Finches. 
 
 a. Banded Finch (Stizoptera bichenovii). 
 
 b. Plum-head Finch (Aidemosyne modesta). 
 
 c. Black-throated Grass Finch (Poephila cincta). 
 
 d. Pink-bellied Grass Parrot (Neophema bourkii). 
 
\ 
 
 NEW SOUTH WALES 91 
 
 we find small forms of the southern species : e.g. 
 Sacred Kingfisher (Halcyon sanctus). 
 Red-browed Finch (Aegintha temporalis). 
 Blue Wren (Malurus cyanochlamys). 
 
 There is a considerable over-lapping of species 
 between Port Hacking and the Clarence River 
 District. It is again clear that the further north 
 one gets from this line the smaller the birds are, 
 and the further south from it, the larger the same 
 species are. 
 
 Coastal migration concerns the wonderful high- 
 ways of eastern birds passing from the State of 
 New South Wales into the State of Victoria. This 
 again is divided into the Coastal Plain, and into 
 the Valley of the Hawkesbury River between 
 Lakes Bathurst and George, and up the higher 
 waters of the Murrumbidgee, and across the water- 
 shed into the Snowy River. 
 
 The birds unequally divide in the southern 
 Monara district, the smaller quantity ascending 
 over the pass into the low land country of Eastern 
 Croagingolong. Many coming south meet the 
 Shoalhaven River and ascend it. They then meet 
 the Gourock Range, keeping on the eastern skirt, 
 e.g. the White-browed Wood-Swallow (Artaruus 
 superciliosus) arriving in October. 
 
92 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 42 
 
 Inland Distribution: Tree Runners (Neositta) 
 
 Brown spot (Recognition mark). 
 
 a. White-headed Tree-runner: S. Q'land and 
 
 N.S.W. 
 
 b. Orange-winged Tree-runner: Q'land, N.S.W., 
 
 Vic., S.A. 
 
 c. Black-headed Tree-runner. 
 White spot. 
 
 d 1 . Pied Tree-runner. 
 e 1 . Striated Tree-runner. 
 f 1 . White-winged Tree-runner. 
 i Brown, I White. 
 
 g. Slender-billed Tree-runner. 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 93 
 
 BROAD DISTRIBUTION 
 
 The Tippet Grebe is found in Europe and Asia, 
 and it is the same species as found in Australia, 
 Tasmania and New Zealand (Map 38). 
 
 It is rather wonderful that such a particularly 
 poor flier should have got across such isolated 
 parts. 
 
 The head display is seasonal and both sexes 
 enjoy it, following up the marriage custom of long 
 ago. After this follows the nesting, and the birds 
 hold their necks upright to present the appearance 
 of a stick in the water. If a flood occurs the nest 
 is built upwards and the eggs raised. If the nest 
 cannot be quickly built up the eggs fail. When 
 the flood disappears the addition to the nest is 
 reduced and flattened out. The young swim 
 immediately on leaving the eggs. The striped 
 plumage shows the ancestral colour scheme. 
 
 A smaller grebe, the Black-throated species, is 
 found as far off the mainland as New Caledonia 
 and Java. It has lobed feet and travels in the 
 water freely. The nests are on a swamp and the 
 birds while sitting on the eggs almost cover them- 
 selves with the water-weeds of the floating nest. 
 During the day the sun does the work of incubating 
 and the birds at night. I have seen as many as 
 seventeen nests on one small weedy swamp, in all 
 of which the eggs were hidden by a rough roof of 
 water weeds. 
 
94 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 43 
 
 Distribution of: 
 River Ducks. 
 Spiny-tailed Ducks. 
 Sea Duck. 
 Shieldrakes. 
 
 a. White-headed Shieldrake (Burdekin Duck) 
 
 (Tadorna). 
 
 b. Chestnut-breasted Shieldrake (Mountain 
 
 Duck (Casarca). 
 
 Blue-billed Duck (Erismatura) \ Spine-tailed 
 
 Musk Duck (Biziura) J Ducks. 
 
 c. Eight species of river ducks all over Aus- 
 
 tralia. 
 
 One species of sea duck {Nyroca). 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 95 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF QUAIL 
 (Plate 3, Fig. 93) 
 
 The true Quail of the Commonwealth is the 
 Stubble Quail (Coturnix pectoralis). It is a grass 
 loving bird, and is local in its habit as long as the 
 food supply is present. Should a plague of mice 
 or caterpillars come along they get the seed and 
 the quail moves away. Thus we get an ever- 
 changing position. If a Central Australian drought 
 rages the birds move southward in a great mass 
 to the Murray River swamps, c 1 . 
 
 Other quails are the Painted and Brown. The 
 Brown species "a," (map 39) is variable in different 
 swamps, and is the swiftest flier of the quails. 
 
 The island form of "a" is b, and it is a paler 
 bird. Because it is so constant in its colour it is 
 thought to be a species. 
 
 The King Quail "d," map 39, has more colour 
 than our other quails and it is more broadly dis- 
 tributed. It is said to be the smallest known game 
 bird, and keeps to swampy ground. 
 
 The Painted Quail "c" has no hind toe. The call 
 is a once repeated coo before rising from the heath 
 in a wavy flight. 
 
 The Plain Wanderer with a spotted ring upon 
 its neck keeps to the area "e," occasionally nest- 
 ing as far south as the plains just west of 
 Melbourne. 
 
AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 44 
 Distribution of the Geese and Swan. 
 
 a. Cape Barren Goose (Cereopsis). 
 
 b. Pied Goose (Anseranas). 
 Maned Goose (Chenonetta). 
 Black Swan (Chenopis). 
 
 c. Pigmy Geese (Nettapus). 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 97 
 
 The eggs are pointed, pear-shaped, and laid 
 upon the bare ground. The male does all the 
 hatching, a most unusual procedure. As a feeble 
 flier it almost prefers to let itself be caught. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF EASTERN MAGPIES 
 (Gymnorhina) 
 
 a. b. c. White-backed section of Eastern Magpies, 
 d. e. Black-backed section of Eastern Magpies. 
 
 Magpies are the popular birds of our people with 
 one dissenting voice. That voice belongs to the 
 man who grows grain and who accuses the bird 
 of eating the seed. Many small grubs about that 
 seed are the principal attraction for the bird. 
 
 Queensland "e," map 40, has its magpie, black- 
 backed, with one record of variation. (Cape York 
 Peninsula, H. L. White). 
 
 Both backs are found at Port Augusta, S.A., the 
 Wakool River and Moree, N.S.W. At Lithgow, 
 Bombala and Cooma, the White-back is the only 
 one so far reported. At present it seems as if the 
 White-back is the common bird in the coast moun- 
 tains, the Black-back far north and inland, and the 
 variable bird between. It is dimorphic throughout 
 most of Australia. In Tasmania the magpie is a 
 small White-back, instead of following the general 
 law of being larger. 
 
 The parents are devoted to their young during 
 the first ten months, after which they get notice 
 
98 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 45 
 Australian Cormorants. 
 
 a. Black Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo.). 
 
 b. Little Black Cormorant (P. ater = sulcirostris). 
 
 c. Little Pied Cormorant (M. melanoleucus) . 
 
 d. Pied Cormorant (P. hypoleucus). 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 99 
 
 to quit the nesting ground. An ejectment is often 
 necessary and occasionally a young bird lies down 
 rather than be hustled away by wing and claw. 
 If it is firm in its refusal to budge, the parents 
 reconsider the matter and finally tolerate it during 
 the following nesting season. 
 
 The position is that the parents need all the 
 grubs for the coming brood, and prefer that their 
 selection be left free of mouths able to feed just 
 as well abroad. 
 
 It is really sentiment on the part of the young. 
 If a drought season does set in the weakling young 
 in the nests certainly die, and many of the strong, 
 as the food is slender. 
 
 INLAND DISTRIBUTION 
 Grass-seed eaters. 
 
 a. Parrots. 
 
 b. Finches. 
 
 Looking at map 41 it would appear as if the 
 grass areas of Australia were correctly defined by 
 those parrots and finches which feed on grass seed. 
 If millions of small birds have been feeding on 
 grass seeds for centuries, it is natural they should 
 know of the good pastoral land. 
 
 Burke's Parrot "d" is the rarest of this group, 
 and the Blue-winged species the most common. 
 They make an elegant and shy genus which nests 
 in logs. 
 7 
 
100 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 46 
 
 A Bassian Birds; one line of migration between 
 N.S.W. and Tas., along the 30 inch rainfall 
 belt. 
 
 B Mountain species, mostly non-migratory. 
 
 C Hill races of species B., Junction of Eyrean and 
 Bassian species. 
 
 D Inland races of B. ~) 
 
 E-Desert races of A. { Eyrcan sub -* lon ' 
 
 a. Isolated area with plain birds (20 in. rain- 
 
 fall). 
 
 b. Western range of several genera of B. 
 
 c. Barrier against dispersal of certain species 
 
 of b. 
 
 d. Home of estuarine birds. 
 
 e. Ocean birds. 
 
 f. The longest continuous nesting line of 
 
 fresh-water birds in Australia. 
 
 g. Shore birds. 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 101 
 
 The Finches are a wonderful family. One (1) 
 of them will live only in the cooler forests, another 
 (2) only on the hot dry plains. A species (3) may 
 be modest in plumage, another (4) extremely 
 beautiful. When young (5) they may have no 
 colour and when adult (5) a splendid splash. Then 
 there is the distinctly spotted bird (6) as well as 
 the clearly defined broad pattern (7). 
 
 They are friendly birds, building near the dwell- 
 ings of man and beast, even occupying the lower 
 flat of a hawk's nest. The nests are bulky, and 
 disorderly, considering the family is so aesthetic 
 in its dress. 
 
 1. Red-eared Finch. 5. Red-browed Finch. 
 
 2. Chestnut-eared Finch. 6. Spotted-sided Finch. 
 
 3. Plum-head Finch. 7. Fire-tailed Finch. 
 
 4. Crimson Finch. 
 
 The eggs are numerous and white. Two species 
 are faintly tinged with blue. In Africa the true 
 finches have pale-bluish eggs. 
 
 The Gouldian Finch of Northern Australia is the 
 most beautiful of all grass-seed feeders, and one of 
 the most finely-coloured of all known birds. The 
 colour scheme is variable under two heads, as some 
 young will have scarlet heads while others in the 
 same nest will have solid black heads. Dichromatic 
 is the term to apply. 
 
102 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 Victor'**. 
 
 MAP 47 
 
 a. Lyre Bird; Pilot Bird; Sooty Owl; Coach-whip 
 
 Bird; Bell Bird; Helmeted Honey-eater. 
 
 b. Malice Fowl; Grass Wren; Wedge-bill; Scrub 
 
 Robin; Red-capped Robin; White-face; Grey 
 Jumper. 
 
 c. Plain Wanderer; Plain Plover; Bustard; Aus- 
 
 tralian Crane (most southerly nesting ground; 
 now disappearing). 
 
 d. Lowland species Emu Wrens and Field Wrens. 
 
 e. Bay Birds Silver and Pacific Gulls and Penguin. 
 
 f. Estuarine birds Local and Migratory. 
 
 g. Permanent Shore birds (Oyster catchers and Red- 
 
 capped Dottrel), 
 h. Albatrosses and other petrels, 
 j. White-backed Magpie (predominant), 
 k. Black-backed Magpie (predominant). 
 1. Intermediate j k (predominant), 
 m. Pallid race of Bronze wing Pigeon (Phaps chal- 
 
 coptera) . 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 103 
 
 INLAND DISTRIBUTION: TREE RUNNERS 
 (Neositta) 
 
 Recognition mark: 1. Brown spot. 
 
 2. White spot. 
 
 3. Combined spots. 
 
 Tree runners travel up the stems of trees, which 
 is the reverse of the Tree creepers. The needle 
 like beaks have an upward curve, being most 
 unusual. They have a love of the beautiful in nest 
 building and enemies cannot readily detect the 
 camouflage in their surroundings. The body-marks 
 make the fourth interesting point in their life 
 history. The species of the southern section of 
 Australia has the brown wing-spot, the white 
 speculum being in that of the northern section. 
 The central section of the continent has the con- 
 necting link, half of each speculum. This is 
 interesting as a general classification in the dis- 
 tribution of colour. There is another type of 
 classification. (G. M. Matthews, 1912 list, p. 379). 
 
 This genus is the Australian representation of 
 the European Nut-hatches. 
 
 The family relationships are of the most pleasant 
 kind, as e.g. birds not nesting. If the mate of a 
 pair about to lay eggs is killed, the hen will lay in 
 another bird's nest, and all will take turns in sitting 
 on the eggs, and hatching out in the usual time. 
 
104 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 48 
 
 a. Species a shade darker than those of a 1 . 
 
 b. Western races of "a." 
 
 c. Tendency to paler colouration than "a." 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 105 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF DUCKS 
 
 1. River Ducks. 
 
 2. Spiny-tailed Ducks. 
 
 3. Sea Duck. 
 
 4. Shield Ducks. 
 
 The two ducks commonly known as the Burde- 
 kin Duck and the Mountain Duck appear to have 
 divided Australia between them, leaving out the 
 central portion which does not appeal to them, 
 except in rainy seasons. These two are the two 
 Shieldrakes of Australia (map 43, a b). 
 
 The Musk Duck is the best known of the Spiny- 
 tailed section. It is known a mile away, by the 
 odour coming with the breeze, and it has a remark- 
 able air sac for calling. Solitary is its habit and 
 swamp loving, it is rarely seen to fly from lagoon 
 to lagoon. It prefers to walk across country from 
 hole to hole. To escape from enemies it would 
 rather dive. It does fly low and rapid, and occa- 
 sionally high across long distances. The general 
 habit is to swim and to stay about the nest and 
 food supply. 
 
 The Hard-head or White-eyed Duck is the only 
 sea duck we have, being found well over Australia, 
 New Guinea and New Zealand. 
 
 There are many species of river ducks, among 
 them being the Pink-eared Duck, the Freckled 
 Duck, the Black Duck, Teal and Whistling Ducks, 
 
106 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAPS 49, 50, 51 
 Discontinuous Distribution. 
 
 a. Noisy Scrub Bird ( Atrichornis) . 
 
 b. Rufous Scrub Bird. 
 
 c. Connecting link (now broken). 
 a 1 . Bristle Bird (Sphenura). 
 
 b 1 . Rufous Bristle Bird. 
 
 a 2 b 2 . The Western races of a 1 b 1 . 
 
 Relative Distribution. 
 
 m. Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria). 
 
 n. Red-capped Robin (Petroica goodenovii). 
 
 o. Scrub Robin (Drymaedus). 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 107 
 
 and the Blue-wing, which is the most beautiful and 
 wildest of the family. Young ducks are precocious, 
 hatching out with effective muscles. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF GEESE AND SWAN 
 
 Goose Teal. 
 Island Goose. 
 Swan. 
 
 The Goose Teal are made up of two species, and 
 are confined to the northern half of Australia (map 
 44, c). They are the Pigmy Geese, and are remark- 
 able for the diminutive size, smaller than teal. 
 
 In the breadth of southern Australia there is a 
 relic of an ancient fauna, the Cape Barren Goose. 
 The closest relation is the giant fossil goose of New 
 Zealand (a). It is the island goose, scarcely touch- 
 ing the mainland except through force of bad 
 weather. 
 
 The Furneaux Group in the east and the 
 Recherche Archipelago in the west are good breed- 
 ing grounds. 
 
 The birds do not nest till they are two years old, 
 and an old bird does not mate with a young one. 
 Should the male be killed the hen flies to another 
 flock, if the female, the male bird will call a new 
 mate from the nearest flock. It feeds largely on 
 grass. 
 
 A more widely distributed bird is the Pied Goose, 
 with only half webbed feet. An equally well dis- 
 
108 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 52 
 Dottrels. 
 
 a. Far interior: Red-kneed Dottrel (Erythrogonys). 
 
 b. Hinterlands: Black-fronted Dottrel (Charadrius 
 
 melanops). 
 
 c. Coastal: Hooded Dottrel (C. cucullatus). 
 
 d. Double-banded Dottrel (C. bicinctus). 
 
 a. b. c. d. Red-capped Dottrel (C. ruficapillus). 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 109 
 
 tributed one is the Maned Goose (Wood Duck), 
 map 44, b. It appears to be a duck with a miniature 
 goose-bill. 
 
 The Black Swan is an elegant and popular bird, 
 probably the oldest known Australian bird on 
 record. 
 
 The young are plain grey. If a nesting swamp 
 dries completely, the young are marched overland 
 to another marsh, in the sight of their parents all 
 the time. In Queensland the swan breeds three 
 times in a year, and the first brood of young is 
 driven away before the parents settle down to the 
 care of the second. More serious trouble for the 
 young is found in the number of Golden Beaver- 
 Rats which destroy them. 
 
 CORMORANTS 
 (Plate 2, Fig. 45) 
 
 1. Australasian. 
 
 2. Extra Australian. 
 
 The family is a very uniform one, variable only 
 in plumage colour. This is most marked in the 
 disposition of the black and white, and minor 
 pigment colours of the bare skin about the head. 
 
 Upon examination of the hard tissues of the 
 family, it is found to be closely related to the 
 Gannets, Tropic Birds and Frigate Birds; all won- 
 derful things in feathers. 
 
no 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 53 
 Parrots. 
 
 a. Highland a 3 . King Lory. 
 
 a 4 . Variety of a 3 . 
 
 b. Lowland Malice Parrots. 
 Spine-bill Honey-eaters (Acanthorhynchus). 
 
 A Western Spine-bills (with white eyebrow) races 
 
 a' a 2 . 
 
 B Eastern Spine-bills (without white eyebrow) 
 races b 1 b 5 . 
 
 b 1 . Cape York race. 
 b 2 . -.Tasmanian race. 
 b 3 . Victorian race. 
 b 4 . Kangaroo Island race. 
 b 5 . Mount Lofty race. 
 
NEW SOUTH WALES 1 1 1 
 
 Map 45 shows the distribution of c and d, the 
 purely Australian species. 
 
 "A" is the bird of utility value; Manchurians 
 turning it to account as a bread winner for the 
 human family. It certainly is a clever fisher in 
 the rivers, trained to use a boat as vantage ground. 
 Fishing in this way is a common practice along 
 the tributaries of the Amur River, across which 
 Australian migratory birds annually pass. 
 
 In the southern hemisphere it is most numerous 
 in Tasmania, getting less in quantity as the Equa- 
 tor is approached. 
 
 Although a greedy eater of fish it is a large con- 
 sumer of the enemies of fish. On isolated islands 
 away from the haunts of man I have found the 
 cormorant a fearless bird, while in its nesting 
 colonies. 
 
 "a" is the largest, "c" the smallest, "d" the most 
 common of the Australian species. 
 
112 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 53a. 
 Owls. 
 
 a. Highland Owl (Tyto tenebricosa) Sooty or Black 
 
 Owl. 
 
 a 1 . Victorian race of "a." 
 a 2 . Northern race of "a." 
 
 b. Lowland Owl (T. longimembris ) Long-legged 
 
 White or Grass Owl. 
 
 b 1 . Farthest south, only in sporadic mi- 
 gration. 
 
VICTORIA 113 
 
 VICTORIA 
 
 Areas 4 7 4 . 
 A GREAT JUNCTION 
 
 In this chapter reference is made to the southern 
 nesting ground of countless birds. We also find 
 here the permanent stations of birds that have a 
 northern origin, as well as others with an eastern 
 one. It is the great southern junction of Eyrean 
 and Bassian species. 
 
 Map 46 shows several zones of bird life and the 
 influence of a mountain chain on a given migration 
 course. 
 
 It has kept stationary birds divided, continuing 
 to make new species on both sides. Within a gap 
 of the mountain range we have a great bay (e) and 
 an ancient sunken river mouth (c). These have 
 provided feeding grounds for estuarine and coastal 
 birds. On the south side of the Otway Forest 
 there is a 40 inch rainfall, on the north 20 inches. 
 It has resulted in two types of birds, one loving the 
 wet, the other the dry. This portion of Victoria 
 is a remarkably interesting centre of animal life. 
 
114 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 64 
 
 Example of an extensive littoral distribution: 
 White-eyes (Zosterops). 
 
VICTORIA 115 
 
 CHARACTERISTIC BIRDS OF THE 
 
 VICTORIAN AREAS 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 9; Plate 2, Figs. 47, 92) 
 
 1. Estuarine and Coastal. 
 
 2. Moist-cold country. 
 
 3. Dry country; timbered. 
 
 4. Dry country; open, grassed. 
 
 There are in these areas four distinct parallel 
 lines of feathered life, map 47. 
 
 The result of incoming shoals of fish is the visit- 
 ing flocks of web-footed birds. Some are direct 
 fish feeders, as the Terns; others, as the gulls, are 
 scavengers. An immigration of jelly fish (cephalo- 
 pods) draws in their train the smaller albatrosses. 
 When the estuaries have irregular visits of great 
 shoals of herrings and sprats, quite a number of 
 extraordinary birds pay visit. 
 
 The coastal birds we expect by special circum- 
 stances to have characters in common, and different 
 from those of other zones. The cold moist country 
 between Cape Otway and Cape Howe is largely 
 tenanted with hill birds differing from all other 
 known birds. A list is given in the text to map 
 47, highland (a), lowland (d). 
 
 The dry forest country (d) contains groups 
 absent from (a), and may be called the Mallee 
 group. The Goulburn Valley is a buffer area. 
 
116 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 55. 
 
 A Golden White-eye and its races in Australia, a d. 
 B Grey White-eye and its races in Australia, e 1. 
 
VICTORIA 117 
 
 THE EFFECT OF THE DIVIDING RANGE 
 
 As we come south from the warm moist air of 
 the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales, we 
 may observe that the colour of all the birds of any 
 any one species is growing darker (map 48, a). 
 That is the climatic effect on the plumage. Having 
 followed this change as far as Port Phillip, and 
 continuing westward, we less readily see a second 
 change, b. It is the western drier light air influ- 
 ence. The grass and the trees have all accepted 
 the changed weather conditions, and taken on an 
 altered dress. 
 
 North of the Dividing Range, c, there is a larger 
 mass of migratory birds than in the south, e.g. the 
 chats (Ephthianura), one red, the other yellow. 
 When meeting the mountain bar the food becomes 
 less, and many birds considering they have come 
 far enough southward, stay and feed and nest. The 
 lesson of many generations, extending over many 
 centuries, is to come south to the same areas, each 
 to its kind. 
 
 The present day species, incoming with the 
 spring, make for the old nesting grounds. If the 
 previous season has been a dry one, and seeds and 
 insects are in small supply, many birds will cross 
 over the smaller hills and relieve the strain on the 
 food supply in the usual nesting grounds. It is 
 then that naturalists will record strange birds being 
 
118 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 56 
 
 Herons of the Derwent Estuary (Extreme south of 
 Australia). 
 
 a. Reef Heron (Demigretta sacra). 
 
 b. White-fronted Heron (Notophoyx novae hollan- 
 
 diae). 
 Nankeen Night Heron (Nycticorax). 
 
 c. Pacific Heron (N. pacificus). 
 
VICTORIA 119 
 
 found on the Keilor and Werribee Plains. When 
 the ordinary weather returns, the birds will keep 
 to the northern side of the Divide. 
 
 DISCONTINUOUS DISTRIBUTION 
 
 Scrub-Birds. 
 
 East West. 
 
 Colour Pattern. 
 
 An example of the station or broken distribution 
 of a species is given in maps 49 and 50, and at the 
 same time it is a good case of eastern and western 
 representation of the same bird. These species 
 also indicate coastal habitat extending from the 
 sub-tropical brushes to the extra tropical forests, 
 A genus of two species a 1 b 1 is represented far 
 away in the west by two races a 2 b 2 , the Bristle 
 Birds (Sphenura). Between these two areas the 
 country has been altered and the connecting links 
 have disappeared. Map 51 to indicate colour pat- 
 tern shows the approximate living ground of a 
 Yellow Robin (m), a Red-capped Robin (n), and 
 a Brown Scrub Robin (o). 
 
 Yellow Robins love the quiet of forest vegeta- 
 tion, Red-capped Robins the broad edge of the 
 mallee gum country, and the Brown Scrub Robins 
 within the mallee scrub. 
 
 The Yellow Robin is an eopsaltria, meaning 
 psalm of dawn, and the lovely form of this jonquil 
 coloured bird, as it silently passes from tree to tree, 
 is most attractive. 
 
120 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 57 
 Best known Crakes and Rails :- 
 
 a. Pectoral Rail (Hypotaenidia). 
 
 b. Spotted Crake (Porzana fluminea). 
 
 c. Little Crake (P. pusills). 
 
VICTORIA 121 
 
 The Red-capped Robin with its brilliant reds 
 and blacks is a bush jewel, building a charming 
 nest in keeping with its personal beauty. 
 
 The Scrub Robin is a brown bird of plain plum- 
 age and with long strong legs developed for the 
 purpose of its ground life. It fills the niche in the 
 dry scrubs of the lower Murray River. 
 
 HABITATS OF DOTTRELS 
 (Plate 2, Fig. 52) 
 Interior. 
 Hinterland. 
 Coastal. 
 
 Our dottrels come of a world wide family, some 
 of which are only visitors from Siberia; others 
 being local and with us at all times. A few of these 
 Siberian species, with great social instinct, come 
 as far south as "a" in map 52, and others to "d." 
 Of the non-migrating species the Red-kneed species 
 stays in b, and the Double-banded in c, d. The 
 Red-capped Dottrel covers all the ground in Aus- 
 tralia, but is not a resident of Siberia as well. 
 
 In April of each year the migrating species leave 
 their winter ground (Victoria) and go north to 
 Corea (Chosan) where they wait for the still more 
 northern snow to melt. While doing so they 
 change their plumage, getting into the marriage 
 suit. I have been very interested in seeing these 
 changing birds on the rice fields of Japan, where 
 
122 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 58 
 
 Gull Family: Terns: 
 
 a. Sea Terns. 
 
 b. Land Terns. 
 
 c. Sea and Land Terns. 
 
 a 1 . White-faced Ternlet (Sternula nereis). 
 a 2 . White-shafted Ternlet (S. albifrons). 
 b 1 . Marsh Tern (Chilodonias lencopareia). 
 
 (Parts of the old world). 
 b 2 . Gull-billed Tern (Gelochelidon nilotica). 
 
 (Parts of old world and America). 
 c 1 . White-winged Tern (C. leucoptera). 
 
VICTORIA 123 
 
 they associate with the curlews and godwits in 
 thousands. 
 
 According to the Russian calendar they pass 
 Vladivostock northwards on a regular date. I 
 once had the experience of being in this eastern 
 city on a dark stormy night when the black air was 
 full of straying birds with anxious calls. 
 
 The Red-cap is the smallest of our dottrels; the 
 Double-band about the largest, the band being a 
 protective device. The sandy coloured young of 
 these birds run as soon as hatched. The origin of 
 nest building is in this family. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION 
 
 a. Height: Highland and Lowland Parrots. 
 
 b. Breadth : Spine-billed Honeyeaters. 
 
 Thousands of birds go up the mountains in the 
 spring of the year. The King Lory with its brush 
 tongue is one example, map 53, a 3 , the northern 
 race being a 4 . It is a highland bird in summer and 
 a cold lowland bird in winter. 
 
 The Mallee parrots are the birds keeping to the 
 dry lowlands throughout the year. 
 
 The Spine-billed Honey-eater is broadly dis- 
 tributed and found in the same country as the King 
 Parrot, ascending the mountains to the same alti- 
 tude and returning to the depths in Autumn. This 
 is their Bathic migration in the eastern range. In 
 Western Australia the same genus has a white 
 brow as the clan recognition mark. In this we have 
 
124 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 59 
 
 Parasitic Gulls: 
 ASouthern Skua (Catharacta). 
 6 Arctic Skuas (Stercorarius). 
 
 b 1 . Nesting Ground (June). 
 b 2 . Winter Ground (December). 
 
VICTORIA 125 
 
 an example of the greatest breadth of distribution 
 in Australia. 
 
 The eastern spinebills are very variable; two 
 island races, one in the tropics and two in the 
 south. Of these latter, one belongs to the dry belt, 
 the other to the moist forests. This ruby-eyed bird 
 flutters beneath an arbutulon as the humming bird 
 does below a cactus flower. 
 
 The King Parrot, with brilliant scarlet head, lays 
 round white eggs deep down the hollow of a giant 
 gum tree in a forest depth. The young are green 
 and do not mature before the third year. The 
 Satin-bower Bird of the same forest takes two 
 years longer to mature. A third genus of the same 
 scrubs, the Whistlers (Pachycephala), matures in 
 much less time. 
 
 OWLS: HIGHLAND AND LOWLAND 
 
 In Australia we have no miniature owls such as 
 are found in the East Indies. But we have an 
 extremely large one, the Powerful Owl, living 
 among the spurs of the eastern ranges. 
 
 What does particularly interest us is the dis- 
 tribution of our owls in two sections ; one of which 
 keeps to the plains between Port Phillip and the 
 Gulf of Carpentaria, and the other in all that coun- 
 try east of it. 
 
 Map 53a shows two examples of parallel habitat : 
 
 The Black Owl of the mountains (Tyto tenebri- 
 cosa). 
 
126 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 60 
 Migration routes of Snipe. 
 
 a. Australian Snipe (Gallinago australis). 
 
 b. Eastern Snipe (G. megala). 
 
 c. European Snipe (G. gallinago). 
 
VICTORIA 127 
 
 The White Owl of the plains (T. longimembris). 
 
 Owls have facial discs, and they do not see later- 
 ally as most birds do. Their plumage is so soft as 
 to be able to quickly follow up the advantage of 
 sharp eyes. In some owls there are two sets of 
 down feathers before the ordinary plumage arrives, 
 
 Food is composed of the animal life peculiar to 
 the hills or the plains, and each type of owl helps 
 to keep the balance of nature. 
 
 The White or Grass Owl has particularly long 
 legs, using them freely as a ground feeder. It 
 camps mostly under tussocks. If a plague of mice 
 enters Victoria from Queensland the owls will fol- 
 low. The range of this owl is across to India. 
 
 EXTENSIVE SHORE LINE 
 
 Continental. 
 Insular. 
 
 (Plate 2, Fig. 54) 
 
 The White-eye (Zosterops) comes of a remark- 
 able family. In the first place it has a continental 
 distribution in Australia only, keeping away from 
 the dead heart with its ordinary annual rainfall of 
 4| inches. 
 
 Like the glou morceau among pear trees it has 
 a love of the sea, if one may judge from map 54. 
 In the extra Australian lands the sea coasts attract 
 it. In the extreme north-east limit of its range, 
 Japan claims the White-eye as the largest of its 
 kind, and insular. Off our own coasts in Torres 
 
126 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 61 
 Arctic Rookeries (a. b. c.) and Winter Grounds (d.) : 
 
 a. Curlew. 
 
 b. Whimbrel. 
 
 c. Godwit. 
 
VICTORIA 129 
 
 Strait, and Kangaroo Island and Tasmania we have 
 races. 
 
 Further away we know that different races occur 
 on the New Hebrides, Fiji and New Caledonia. 
 
 The Commonwealth has over a dozen species of 
 the White-eye living like the White-face on the 
 co-operative system. In the more settled districts 
 during the fruit season they give rise to much 
 criticism. Grapes and figs fare badly. Its food 
 during most of the year is the destructive blight 
 insect. So it remains for fertile brains to discover 
 ways of frightening away the birds as the fruit 
 ripens. 
 
 The White-eye is one of the few Australian birds 
 which lay eggs of a bluish colour in a delicately 
 built nest, a few feet above the ground. 
 
 WHITE-EYES (Zosterops) 
 (Plate 2, Fig. 54) 
 
 A. The Golden White-eye and its races. 
 
 B. The Grey White-eyes. 
 
 White eyes are closely related to the family of 
 Honey-eaters (Meliphagidae). We are guided in 
 saying so by the brush like tongues in each. One 
 family mostly lays pinkish eggs, the other bluish. 
 
 The northern half of Australia gives a colour 
 effect to its birds, a good example being shown in 
 map 55 A, the Golden White-eye (Z. gulliveri). 
 If the tropics were not where they are, all the 
 twelve species of White-eyes would be grey. As 
 
130 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 62 
 
 Southern extremity of Bassian sub-region. 
 
 (Direction of high level chain, along which 
 
 birds migrated). 
 
 a. Tidal species (River Tamar). 
 
 b. Ocean: Penguins and Albatrosses (Estuary of 
 
 Derwent). 
 
 c. The Lake country for ducks in summer (Table- 
 
 lands). 
 
 d. Dry-country birds, e.g. Ground Thrush (Cinclo- 
 
 soma). 
 
 f. Wet country birds, e.g., Mountain Thrush (Oreo- 
 
 cincla). 
 
 g. Bulk of mainland migratory birds found here, 
 j. Bulk of petrel family pass here. 
 
 m. Eastern races ) . 
 
 T7 V of same species, 
 
 n. Western races J 
 
VICTORIA 131 
 
 it is we find all the greys in B. The heat of the 
 north has given a golden effect to all the White- 
 eyes of the north. 
 
 These two sections again vary, this time along 
 each line from east to west. It is climatic in con- 
 junction with the different types of country. The 
 variety of timber and the composition of the earth 
 play their parts. In the north it is a thousand miles 
 of mangrove, a. b. c. d. In the south it is the 
 thousand miles of low growing vegetation that 
 fringes the Great Australian Bight, individually 
 altering previous effects in plumages f. g. i. Again 
 in a different way the massive forests of Gippsland 
 stamp the feather dress with the hue of their own 
 territory. The Grey-backed White-eye (Z. gouldi) 
 freely travels over the Bight, the Grey White-eye 
 (Z. dorsalis) within Gippsland. 
 
 HERONS 
 
 1. Inland; 2. Sea. 
 
 Heron-like birds form an order and get together 
 as a most fascinating group: Ibises, Spoon-bills, 
 Egrets, Storks and True Herons. They all have 
 of necessity long necks because every one has long 
 legs. The Jabiru of the back waters is the only 
 Australian stork. 
 
 True Herons include egrets and bittern; some of 
 which keep to sea coasts, while others associate on 
 inland swamps. 
 
132 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 63 
 
 Relationships and Migration. 
 
 a. Bewick's white swan with colour pattern opposite 
 
 to that of the black swan of Tasmania. 
 Nesting ground of several species of birds which 
 migrate to Tasmania. 
 
 b. Tundra and pine forest boundary. 
 
 c. Most northerly nesting ground of Australian 
 
 Swift (Micropus). 
 
 d. Nesting ground of Australian Snipe (Gallinago 
 
 australis). 
 
 e. Meeting ground of Australian and Palaearctic 
 
 forms (Megapode Loxia). 
 
 f. Wallace's line dividing Australian and Asiatic 
 
 birds. 
 
 g. Certain birds migrate from here in winter. 
 h. Isolated genus of coot (Mortier's waterfowl). 
 
VICTORIA 133 
 
 The Pacific Heron, better known as the White- 
 necked species, keeps to Australia proper, while the 
 White-fronted Heron, known as the Blue Crane, is 
 found further afield ; New Zealand and the Phillip- 
 ine Islands, map 56. 
 
 The most widely distributed member of the Aus- 
 tralian set is the Reef Heron. It nests also on the 
 islands of Fiji, Japan and many Polynesian points. 
 
 That the bird should have two phases of colour, 
 as with the Gotildian Finch, is very puzzling. The 
 breeding birds may be pure white, or they may be 
 slaty blue making the bird sporadic and dimorphic. 
 They frequent reefs of all sorts, and add to the 
 beauty of lonely scenes. 
 
 Egrets are handsome birds when in full summer 
 plumes. In a colonial nesting bed of red gums, 
 they make a lovely picture. Their rookeries are 
 placed where frogs are counted by the thousand, 
 and where water flowers and tall bull rushes grow. 
 
 Amongst the reeds and tangle the Bitterns boom. 
 The Mangrove Bitterns are mostly northern 
 species, one of the three species being found in the 
 Upper Darling waters and as far south as the big 
 scrubs of the Darling River. The largest and the 
 smallest Bitterns are found all over Australia. 
 Bitterns have procryptic colouration. 
 
 The Nankeen Night-Heron, as its name implies, 
 is nocturnal. In day light it sleeps on the tops of 
 tall trees. When the twilight comes the bird fishes 
 by the water side, keeping eyes specially alert for 
 
134 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 64 
 
 Migration flights; normal and abnormal. 
 
 Migratory birds, from Siberia, e.g., Godwit, divide 
 at Papua for Tasmania and New Zealand. 
 
 B The most southerly snipe: Auckland Island. 
 C The most southerly habitat of rails 
 
 and parrots (abnormal) Macquarie Island. 
 
VICTORIA 135 
 
 frogs. It lays pale blue eggs, southward in Tas- 
 mania or away in the Pelew Islands. 
 
 RAILS AND CRAKES 
 (Plate 2, Fig 57) 
 
 There are five species of Rails and five different 
 Crakes in Australia. One of the latter is only a 
 visitor from Asia and is classed as a stray. The 
 usual custom is to leave China in Autumn and fly 
 south to Sumatra. We have discovered that one 
 bird overflew its country and landed in New South 
 Wales, the Corn Crake of Europe and Asia. 
 
 Map 57 shows "a" the Pectoral Rail to have a 
 deep range of distribution with an eastern diversion 
 from the type (sub sp. mellori), and from the com- 
 mon range. 
 
 The largest of our rails, the Chestnut-bellied 
 Rail is purely a northern bird. 
 
 The Spotted Crake frequents the damp spots 
 between eastern Queensland and southern Tas- 
 mania. A leafy staging leads from the water to the 
 nest and the eggs are brownish olive, rather un- 
 usual among birds. 
 
 Rails and Crakes are shy sensitive birds, as I 
 gather from a nest of eggs of the Pectoral Rail 
 collected in September. Having discovered the 
 nest of eggs I counted them and left them till my 
 return in the afternoon. Then I found they had all 
 been removed to a quickly made rough nest some 
 dozen yards away. The birds had lifted them, one 
 
136 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 65 
 
 Tasmanian Seas: 
 
 A B Land-and sea-birds of the Temperate zone: 
 
 A Open-toed birds. 
 B Web-toed birds. 
 
 B The region of visitors from the southern 
 waters e.g. King Penguin and petrels 
 from east to west. 
 
 a Nesting ground of White-capped Alba- 
 tross. 
 
 C Direction of sub-tropical strays e.g. Red- 
 tailed Tropic-bird. 
 
VICTORIA 137 
 
 by one, so I left them to her tender forethought 
 and care. 
 
 THE GULL FAMILY (TERNS) 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 9) 
 
 a. Sea Terns. 
 
 b. Land Terns. 
 
 c. Sea and Land Terns. 
 
 The Terns are the straight-billed section of the 
 family; the Australian waters having eighteen 
 species. Map 58 shows their approximate field with 
 examples. 
 
 The great mass of terns is tropical and the Sooty 
 and Noddy species are the most numerous. 
 
 Sea terns offer two experiences in one's life, the 
 first a visit to the Great Barrier Reef, and the 
 second to the Abrolhos Coral Islands. On the 
 latter I have seen a thousand nests of the 
 Noddy upon the low salt-bushes, and a thousand 
 of the Sooty on the ground beneath those bushes. 
 To add to the wonder of it, there were a thousand 
 petrels nesting in the holes of the ground below the 
 tern nests. 
 
 The quiet of the day was relieved by the voice 
 of the terns, the dark of the night by the sounds 
 of the petrels. Homoplasmy or the action of a like 
 environment has caused the gull and petrel to 
 appear alike. Gulls are related to the plover tribe. 
 
 The land Terns are very graceful and fork-tailed, 
 keeping to the rivers and marshes to nest, some- 
 times using the deserted nests of grebes. 
 
138 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 66 
 
 Complete absence of large families from Tasmania 
 e.g. Flyeater (Gerygone). 
 
 a. Stronghold of several species and races. 
 
 b. Species of Gerygone and races. 
 
 c. Flyeater family (Gerygone) absent. 
 
VICTORIA 139 
 
 The White-winged Tern associates with the 
 land tern upon the swamps, in addition to travelling 
 across the waters of the Austro-Malay Archipelago. 
 
 PARASITIC GULLS 
 
 Sub Arctic. 
 
 Australia. 
 
 Sub Antarctic. 
 
 Every year Southern Australia is visited by Skua 
 Gulls; the partial parasites of other gulls. Some 
 come from their nesting ground in the tundra of 
 Siberia, others from their nesting grounds on the 
 sub-antarctic islands, map 59. My experience has 
 been with each and I must say they are fearsome 
 birds, cruel and greedy. They steal and eat the 
 young of their closest relatives. Mother Carey's 
 chickens (Wilson's Petrel; Oceanites oceanicus) 
 are promptly gobbled up in the twilight if they 
 show themselves, or are late in returning with the 
 sun rise. The Skuas walk among the rookeries of 
 cormorants, and if the eggs are left for a moment 
 they are stolen, cracked and swallowed. Boldness 
 is shown in the way the birds approach any man 
 resting at his mid-day meal with wild ducks re- 
 cently killed behind him. They come quietly and 
 eat their prize on the spot as if mere man were 
 beyond consideration. The Southern Skua is prob- 
 ably the Australian race of the Falkland Island 
 Skua. 
 
140 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 67 
 
 Island distribution, connecting avifauna; a Cape 
 Barren Goose (Cereopsis). 
 
VICTORIA 141 
 
 A third skua comes from Asia to the northern 
 shores of Australia, and with it we get two distinct 
 and opposite phases of plumage colour showing 
 continuous variation. 
 
 MIGRATION OF SNIPE 
 
 The north south annual migration of the large 
 snipe is indicated in map 60. The European Snipe 
 is really Asiatic as well, the term holarctic being 
 the correct one to use. 
 
 The Eastern Snipe each year comes south in the 
 spring to Northern Australia, and returns to north- 
 ern high latitudes in the following February 
 March. 
 
 The Australian Snipe is not wholly Australian, 
 as it is born in Manchuria or in Japan, and regularly 
 migrates between Tasmania and the 50th parallel 
 of northern latitude. It is remarkable that these 
 "long bills" all meet in their migration on the 
 Phillipines. Gallinago australis nests in the grassy 
 flats at the base of the sacred Fujiyama at an alti- 
 tude of some 3,000 feet. If disturbed it indulges 
 in fancy flights with weird wing noises. The 
 young as soon as they are strong enough to leave 
 their snow topped Fujiyama fly southward and 
 make for the feeding swamps of their parents; in 
 southern Gippsland for example. 
 
 By September or October the majority of snipe 
 have arrived. Worms, mellipedes and damp ground 
 
142 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 68 
 
 Tasmanian and New Zealand waters: 
 
 a. Diving Petrel (Pelecanoides). 
 
 b. Silver and Pacific Gulls (Bassian races). 
 Black Oyster-catcher (Haematopus fuliginosus). 
 
VICTORIA 143 
 
 insects are its food. They follow the edge of the 
 drying waters. 
 
 The best place to look for snipe in southern 
 Australia is not in the fen ground but in the dry 
 sandy rises among fern and heath. Later in the 
 season they lie in the shade of large trees and fre- 
 quent the tea tree of the morass. As the waters 
 dry they pack in the remaining rushes of the 
 creeks giving preference to certain spots. 
 
 ARCTIC AND SUB-ANTARCTIC ROOKERIES 
 
 AND WINTER GROUNDS 
 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 8) 
 
 Away in frozen northern Asia immense flocks of 
 Australian birds are associating. The time is May. 
 They are waiting within a thousand miles of the 
 rookeries for the melting of the snow. These are 
 the birds we saw on Tasmanian coasts a month ago, 
 restless, calling, and congregating for the great 
 flight that will land them in the richest feeding 
 ground of the Polar basin. There they will breed, 
 but not rear their young. It is reserved for the 
 winter ground of September March in the south- 
 ern States of the Commonwealth. 
 
 The rookeries, though extensive, are scarcely 
 visible as great affairs. Apologies for nests are 
 far flung upon the frozen ground but not seen, even 
 though the birds are flying everywhere; wheeling, 
 opening and closing with the precision of a trained 
 troupe. Associated in these endless flocks are Cur- 
 
144 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 69 
 Emus; extinct and living (Dromaius). 
 
 a b c Three fossil emus. 
 
 a. Tasmanian Emu. 
 
 b. King Island Emu. 
 
 c. Kangaroo Island Emu. 
 
 d. The living Emu. 
 
TASMANIA 145 
 
 lews, Sanderlings, and Dunlins; Whimbrels, Green- 
 shanks, Sandpipers and larger Plover; Godwits of 
 the east and Godwits of the west. The wonder is 
 that the multitude of the eastern birds makes south 
 to New South Wales, and the western birds go to 
 South Africa, while all have nested in close vicinity. 
 Map 61 b, c, is the treeless land with reindeer 
 mosses, frozen a foot beneath the surface. Yet 
 that surface is crowded with thawing berries, the 
 food of countless birds the Australian Little 
 Stint, Snow Finches and Siberian Blue-throats. 
 The last winters in India and Africa, and it will be 
 most exciting if it is ever discovered in Australia 
 because it is the loveliest of things. 
 
 TASMANIA 
 
 Area 5 
 
 Tasmania has a wonderful ocean bird-fauna, as 
 remarkable though not as conspicuous as that of 
 the Queensland coast. Petrels travel in vast flocks 
 and penguins in shoals. Circumpolar birds pass in 
 the winter and mostly nest away in the summer. 
 Smaller albatrosses have their beaten tracts in 
 certain portions of this sea and in the roaring 
 forties. 
 
 Land birds annually migrate to Queensland or 
 to a lesser extent, remain in the neighbourhood of 
 their birth. Some keep entirely to the forest, 
 
146 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 70 
 
 Distribution of hawk-like birds found southward to 
 the estuary of the Derwent River: 
 
 a. Black-cheeked Falcon (Falco peregrinus). 
 Little Falcon (F. longipennis). 
 
 Brown Hawk (lericidea berigora). 
 Kestrel (Cerchneis). 
 Wedge-tail Eagle (Uroaetus). 
 
 b. White-bellied Sea-eagle (Haliaetus leucogaster). 
 White-headed Osprey (Pandion) extending along 
 
 West Australia. 
 
 c. Grey Goshawk (Astur clarus). 
 
 d. Allied Harrier (Circus a. gouldi). 
 
 Eastern Sparrow Hawk (Accipiter cirrhocephalus) 
 race W.A. 
 
TASMANIA 147 
 
 others to the open. The shore fauna has many 
 local races. The whole shore fauna is not so local. 
 Many species cross and recross the Bass Strait, one 
 small dottrel flying to Siberia to nest and return 
 each year. 
 
 There are several interesting centres, e.g. the 
 Derwent estuary, (map 62 b.). This estuary opens 
 into the best of our bays for penguins, the smaller 
 petrels and albatrosses. It is the southern extrem- 
 ity of the Bassian sub-region, a part of the broken 
 chain along which the birds used to travel from 
 Victoria in their annual migration. 
 
 Eastern and western island representation is 
 shown in m, n, map 62. This is owing to the 
 east being dry and open, and the west wet with 
 heavy rainfall forests. 
 
 Tasmania is not a rich feeding ground, berries 
 being few, eucalypts not satisfying, and sand 
 beaches too clean. The animals actually here are 
 just as fully interesting and serve as compensation 
 for the lack of number. 
 
 RELATIONSHIPS AND MIGRATIONS 
 (Plate 2, Fig. 36; PI. 1, Fig. B; PL 2, Fig. 61) 
 
 Tasmanian birds are: 1. Asiatic, as visitors; 2. 
 Closely related to the Indian fauna; 3. Derived 
 from birds of the mainland, particularly that por- 
 tion which is east of Port Phillip. 
 
 Forests largely determine the types of birds 
 
 occupied by them, e.g. the vast pine country in 
 10 
 
148 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 71 
 
 Fire-tailed Finch (Zonaeginthus bellus), a; (the only 
 representative of the family in Tasmania 
 
TASMANIA 149 
 
 northern Asia has innumerable quantities of 
 finches. These are birds with beaks suitable to 
 break the tough food supplied by conifer trees. 
 
 In Australia and Tasmania we have the main 
 forests bearing sweet liquid flowers, so that those 
 forests have an extensive family' of honey-eating 
 birds absent from Asia. 
 
 The Indian and Australian Regions have certain 
 perching birds in common, e.g. Bee-eater (Merops) 
 and Wood Swallow (Artamus). The relationship 
 is an ancient one. 
 
 It is wonderful that Wallace's line, g, map 63, 
 proves itself a barrier to distribution ; on one side 
 the fauna being largely Asiatic, on the other, Aus- 
 tralian. 
 
 There are examples of birds whose ancestors 
 were somewhat alike but whose descendants now 
 live isolated lives on each side of Wallace's line. 
 At the delta of the Lena River a local water fowl 
 (Diver) is found, while in the estuary of the Der- 
 went River a second one (Mortier's Coot) is com- 
 mon. The Tasmanian migratory birds pass over 
 the 8,000 miles separating these two water fowl, 
 making a return journey of it in the year. The 
 Diver migrates up the Lena River each spring, the 
 Coot does not move. Here we have internal migra- 
 tion, and a complete local habitat. 
 
 True migration is a big affair. The snipe (e) will 
 breed in Japan, the swift (d) in the market place 
 of Yakutsk, the centre of the fur trade in mid- 
 
150 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 72 
 
 Parrot-like birds. 
 
 a. Gang-gang Cockatoo (Callocephalon). 
 c. Broad-tailed Parrots (Platycercus). 
 
 c 1 Western representation of Rosella Pariot. 
 
TASMANIA 151 
 
 Siberia. It is there I have collected eggs now in 
 the Tring Museum. 
 
 The Marshtringa and the Greenshank birds well- 
 known to sportsmen, go to the limit of migration, 
 the Arctic shores; and to the wonder of us all in 
 Southern Tasmania return in the yellow-haired 
 September. 
 
 MIGRATION FLIGHTS 
 
 Normal and Abnormal. 
 (Plate 2, Figs. 61, 57) 
 
 Most of the birds of the order Charadriiformes, 
 or Limicolese, which means dwellers of the mud, 
 are shore birds. They are mostly migratory and 
 wing their way from summer to summer never 
 knowing a winter. 
 
 On entering Siberia in April they may, and prob- 
 ably do, encounter a blizzard of the most terrifying 
 nature. On return in September they meet the 
 sixty miles an hour wind and fly high. From this 
 time on the flocks are ready for the quiet of a 
 secluded beach. 
 
 Map 64, A, is the parting ground of immigrating 
 flocks of waders. Some go on to New Zealand 
 while most are making for the eastern shore line 
 of Australia a few of whom will continue to the 
 southern land shelf of Tasmania. 
 
 The North Cape of New Zealand in March is 
 one of the most fascinating parts of the world, 
 
152 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 73 
 
 Diamond Birds (Pardalotus). 
 
 a. Forty-spotted Pardalote (P. quadragintus). 
 
 b. Eastern Yellow-tipped Pardalote (P. affinis). 
 
 (race of P. striatus). 
 
 c. Spotted Pardalote (P. punctatus). 
 
TASMANIA 153 
 
 because a thousand Godwits have congregated, and 
 are over anxious to return to the land of their birth 
 in Siberia. They have all the nervous ways of a 
 people about to cross an uncharted sea. 
 
 One of the abnormal giant flights of non-migra- 
 ting birds is seen in c, map 64. Parrots and Rails 
 through an unexpected cause have got to c, the 
 Macquarie Islands. There they live an unenviable 
 life, without trees and on soils that are super- 
 saturated. 
 
 Birds that get far out in these seas with an off- 
 shore gale either drown, get temporary sanctuary 
 on a ship, or meet a desolate island. The rails 
 and parrots in this case had the better fortune to 
 be blown on the Macquarie Island, so well-known 
 as a base of Antarctic expeditions. 
 
 TASMANIAN SEAS 
 
 Littoral and Pelagic. 
 (Plate 3, Fig. 91) 
 
 Coast-line birds are the littoral species, being 
 open toed if terrestrial, and webbed if marine. The 
 food of one is insects roaming the grass and bushes. 
 The feeding ground of the other is in the sea, or 
 on its surface, where vast millions of small crus- 
 tacea live. 
 
 We have a fauna that keeps almost entirely to 
 the salt bushes of the coast, while certain trees 
 give preference to the shoreline. These trees har- 
 
154 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 74 
 The Distribution of Tasmanian Honey-eaters: 
 
 a. Noisy Miner (Myzantha garrula). 
 Yellow- wattle bird (Anthochaera paradoxa). 
 Yellow- throated Honey-eater (Ptilotis flavigula). 
 Strong-billed Honey-eater (Melithreptus validir- 
 
 ostris). 
 
 Black-headed Honey-eater (M. melanocephalus). 
 Tasmaninan Spine-bill, a race of the eastern species 
 (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris). 
 
 b. Tawny-crowned Honey-eater (Glyciphila). 
 White-bearded Honey-eater (Meliornis novae hol- 
 
 landiae). 
 Brush Wattle-bird (Annelobia mellivora). 
 
 c. Crescent Honey-eater (Meliornis pyrrhoptera). 
 
TASMANIA 155 
 
 hour insects that do not live inland, so conservative 
 birds in their cupboard love of the coast identify 
 themselves as part of it. 
 
 Some birds come to the coast to winter, others 
 to summer. Many Honey-eaters live their whole 
 life by it. Field Wrens (Calamanthus) are very 
 dependable as dwellers in the salt bush. 
 
 The Silver Gull is web-footed, and a frequenter 
 of the beach, coming close to the settlement. The 
 Pacific Gull, a large brown bird when young and 
 mostly snow white when adult is the largest sca- 
 venger of the sands. Far away from the cities and 
 from the haunts of man, the Red-bills or Oyster- 
 Catchers take up their solitary stands on the open 
 beaches. These birds are only partly web-footed, 
 the outer toe being joined to the middle one by a 
 web, There is no hind toe to support it. 
 
 The ocean cares for the pelagic birds, and they 
 come in to the dunes or the rocks when the season 
 arrives for nesting. 
 
 The family that thinly veils the vast ocean is 
 made up of birds with special noses, definite tubes 
 as nostrils. In it is included all the albatrosses, 
 whale-birds and small petrels. Their food is prin- 
 cipally squids or cephalopods; the ocean teeming 
 with them. 
 
156 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 75 
 Main migration line of South Australian birds: 
 
 Bee-eater (Merops) Port Augusta to Papua, via 
 
 Diamantina River. 
 Blue-bellied Lorikeet (Trichoglossus novae hol- 
 
 landiae) Eyre Peninsula North Queensland. 
 
TASMANIA 157 
 
 COMPLETE ABSENCE OF LARGE 
 
 FAMILIES FROM TASMANIA 
 
 (Plate 1, Figs. 28, 82) 
 
 Tasmania is the stronghold of Southern Ocean 
 families as a compensation for its weakness in land 
 families. Some fifty thousand years ago it was 
 joined to Victoria, and that was the opportunity 
 for many Australian families to have gone south 
 to Tasmania. They did not take advantage of the 
 land bridge, possibly because of the poor food sup- 
 ply, and therefore missed their opportunity. Bass 
 Strait formed and made a barrier to dispersal. 
 Gerygone, a family of flyeaters, is one example as 
 shown in map 66. Why Tasmania should be with- 
 out it and New Zealand with it, or its first cousin, 
 is not due to modern influences. It must date far 
 back when New Zealand was connected with "a" 
 map 66, and when Victoria had no gerygones. The 
 word means eater of wasps : and it is possible we 
 did not have the proper kind of wasps. Similarly 
 in Tasmania there is no mistletoe bird, because 
 there are no mistletoe berries. 
 
 Menura the Lyre Bird, Psitta the Tree-runner 
 and Climacteris the Tree-creeper, are remarkable 
 mainland families absent from Tasmania. 
 
 If Antigone the Crane had got across, it would 
 have found a living in the estuaries rather than 
 starve in the absence of plains. 
 
 Tasmanian plains are made up largely of button 
 grass and do not offer much encouragement in the 
 way of food supply. 
 
15S 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 76 
 
 Key to distribution of the races of a species in 
 South Australia. 
 
 a. Connecting Robins (Bassian-Eyrean). 
 
 b. Insular race of a. 
 
 c. Paler race of a. 
 
 d. Interior race of a. 
 
 e. Peninsula race of a. 
 
 f. Western race of a. 
 
 Rainfall annual average 20in., lOin., Sin. 
 
TASMANIA 159 
 
 ISLAND DISTRIBUTION 
 
 1. Racial; 2. Non-racial 
 (Plate 1, Figs. 6, 30; Plate 2, Fig. 61) 
 
 Tasmania, King, Flinders and Kangaroo are four 
 young islands that regularly have the same species. 
 Most of them get the overflow from the main part 
 of the Bassian sub-region (N.S.W.-Vic.). Those 
 which have become stationary in Tasmania are 
 already subject to geographical effect. This gives 
 the racial differences. Food and forest; moist or 
 dry ; warm or cold ; and the feathers remain as they 
 are or darken. They deepen their plumage colour. 
 A species living on a large bushy swamp, rather 
 than on an open scrub, in a few generations 
 changes its colour sufficiently to make a race of 
 the species. There are many such examples that 
 have not yet been studied in Australia, and it is to 
 be the work of many all round naturalists to supply 
 the information. 
 
 Map 67 associates the islands of Bass Strait with 
 South and South West Australia, through the 
 agency of the Cape Barren Goose. It is a unique 
 goose and there is one race of it; in South Western 
 Australia. 
 
 The non-racial birds are the wanderers which 
 annually travel over many countries, and are 
 beyond local influences. The Grey Plover, Turn- 
 stone, Greenshank and several high-flying birds are 
 amongst them and thoroughly cosmopolitan. 
 
160 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 77 
 
 Southern Australian races of the Australian 
 Tit-Warblers (Acanthiza). 
 
 a. Lower Murray Little Tit-Warbler. 
 
 b. Kangaroo Island Brown Tit-Warbler. 
 
 c. Venus Bay Brown Tit-Warbler. 
 
 d. White-vented Brown Tit-Warbler. 
 
 e. Mt. Lofty Striated Tit-Warbler. 
 
 e 1 . Kangaroo Island Striated Tit- Warbler. 
 
 f. Eyre Peninsula Chestnut-rumped Tit-Warbler. 
 
 g. Port Augusta Chestnut-rumped Tit-Warbler. 
 g 1 . Interior Chestnut-rumped Tit- Warbler. 
 
 h. Southern Yellow-rumped Tit-Warbler. 
 
 h 1 . Adelaide Yellow-rumped Tit-Warbler. 
 
 j. Interior Yellow-rumped Tit-Warbler. 
 
 j 1 . Port Augusta Yellow-rumped Tit- Warbler. 
 
 k. Southern Buff Yellow-rumped Tit-Warbler. 
 
 1. Southern Thin-billed Tit- Warbler. 
 
 m, Interior Brown Tit-Warbler. 
 
 A B Distribution of a Tit-Warbler in a belt of 7 
 
 inch annual rainfall along 1,000 miles east 
 
 west (A. robustirostris) ; 
 A Musgrave Range; B Murchison E. Range, 
 
 Thick-billed Tit-Warbler. 
 
TASMANIA 161 
 
 TASMANIAN AND NEW ZEALAND 
 
 WATERS 
 (Plate 2, Fig. 54; Plate 3, Figs. 93, 98) 
 
 Tasmania and New Zealand are parts of the 
 Australian Region, though the land birds are so 
 very different as to make one wonder however they 
 could be placed in the one and same region. Even 
 the water birds are subject to more and greater 
 geographical differences than in Tasmania which 
 has only two minor associated groups of islands. 
 New Zealand has the sub-antarctic groups of 
 islands far removed from each other. It also has 
 two groups of Polynesian outliers which give two 
 large and quite different assemblages of birds. 
 
 Both Tasmania and New Zealand originally got 
 their land birds from the Papuan sub-region; the 
 first as a matter of a few thousand years ago, the 
 second, one of hundreds of thousands. 
 
 Map 68 shows a connecting species, the Diving 
 Petrel. It is a feeble flier but like the penguins it 
 can keep to the sea for weeks at a time. It has in 
 fact become a short-legged, highly specialised form 
 of diving bird. The Silver and Pacific Gulls are 
 shown at b. 
 
 The Crested Penguin is common to both ; while 
 the islands of New Zealand are rich in penguins, 
 having no less than eight species. Tasmania, as 
 a dependency with no national far flung appen- 
 dages, has only two species, one being the smallest 
 known. 
 
162 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 78 
 
 Variation in a species from east to west; A C 
 
 1. White-eared Honey-eater (Ptilotis leucotis). 
 
 2. Brown-headed Honey-eater (Melithreptis brevi- 
 
 rostris). 
 
 a. Kangaroo Island race i 
 
 b. Port Augusta race Races in 
 
 c. Interior race South Australia. 
 
 d. Western race 
 
TASMANIA 163 
 
 It is remarkable that the Tasmanian and New 
 Zealand cormorants have their origin in the Antarc- 
 tic as well as in the northern hemisphere. One 
 species is found all the way between Sharks Bay 
 and Stewart Island. 
 
 The two species of Oyster catchers are common 
 to each. Though the Bustard and Crane are found 
 in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland 
 neither occurs in Tasmania nor in New Zealand. 
 
 The true quail (Coturnix) found in Tasmania 
 has become, extinct in New Zealand. The Tas- 
 manian Dusky Fantail is darker in New Zealand, 
 and, spreading rapidly it is pressing out the earlier 
 fantail. 
 
 The White-eye (Zosterops) has been a long time 
 in Tasmania and is a recent introduction to New 
 Zealand. The Pipit is an older resident in the 
 Dominion, and is losing the power of flight on the 
 small islands. Long isolation is working a more 
 wonderful change in the birds of New Zealand than 
 in the modern and accessible Tasmania. 
 
 EMUS (Dromaeidae), dromos, a running; eidos, 
 
 form 
 1. Extinct; 2. Living. 
 
 Many centuries ago when adult emus were small 
 they were flying birds. For reasons unknown to us 
 they took to themselves a ground life, and lost the 
 use of their wing muscles. Their wings dwarfed 
 and their bodies grew to a huge size. 
 
164 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 79 
 
 1. Colour-grading in a species 5 1 White-plumed 
 
 Honey-eater (Meliphaga penicillata) the five 
 races lessening in intensity from 5 to 1. 
 
 2. Long direct range in distribution of a race of the 
 
 species M. penicillata a b c. This is the Leila- 
 vale race; a. Cloncurry; b. Central Australia; 
 c. Flinders Range. 
 
TASMANIA 165 
 
 Four centuries ago, the emu was christened 
 dromaeus a runner, and to-day all over the world, it 
 still holds good. 
 
 In 1642, when Tasman landed in Southern Tas- 
 mania the emu was numerous. Now it is extinct. 
 It was a dark race of the mainland bird. The primi- 
 tive native killed off excess of broods and with the 
 incoming of civilisation in the early part of last 
 century the last of them disappeared. 
 
 Map 69, b, has a King Island race which, also, is 
 extinct. Cultivation and cattle raising have made 
 it impossible for the last of the emus to be still 
 living even in the rank tea tree swamps. 
 
 The last of the Kangaroo Island race, c, is at 
 present in a European Museum. All that remains 
 to us is the mainland species, well distributed over 
 Australia, excepting the rich scrubs of Queensland. 
 The north-west desert country has a sandy col- 
 oured race of it. 
 
 In the thick tropical scrub the cassowary takes 
 its place. This cassowary is a member of another 
 family of the order which is limited to birds having 
 * feeble keel. 
 
 HAWK-LIKE BIRDS 
 
 Though Tasmania has a large quota of Aus- 
 tralian hawks, no one species is peculiar to the 
 State. 
 
 The very swift flying and handsome Black- 
 cheeked Falcon, map 70, "a," gets as far north as 
 
166 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 80 
 
 Chain distribution: Red-browed Finch (Aegintha 
 temporalis). 
 
 4. The species. 
 
 3 5. Terminal races. 
 
 3. The paler race, Highlands of South Australia. 
 
 5. The small race, Cape York Peninsula. 
 
TASMANIA 167 
 
 the Moluccas. It loves bold rocky country and 
 will return each year to its old nesting haunt; some 
 seasons repairing the old nest. 
 
 The Little Falcon is the smallest of our hawks. 
 
 Tasmania and Australia have a land eagle and a 
 sea eagle, b, the former being the largest flying 
 bird in the Commonwealth, and the sea eagle is 
 the second. 
 
 The Osprey, a fish eating hawk, is to be found 
 in Bass Strait. 
 
 Other hawks include the Kestrel, ground-feeding 
 Harriers, Brown Hawk, Sparrow Hawk and the 
 pure white Gos Hawk. 
 
 The Kites have not yet appeared as far south as 
 Tasmania and as a hunting ground for the Buzzard 
 it is not warm enough. 
 
 The Harriers are the long-legged ground or 
 swamp Hawks, living upon most things meaty, not 
 too large to catch, and small enough to swallow. 
 Cancerous mice are greedily swallowed. The com- 
 mon harrier lays white eggs in a swamp nest and 
 will resort to it year after year, if not disturbed. 
 
 THE FINCH FAMILY 
 
 The only finch found in Tasmania is a good 
 example of feeble or unit representation. It is 
 classed among the weavers, known as a sub family 
 of most lovely birds. Their colours compete with 
 
168 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 81 
 
 Chestnut-eared Finch (Zebra Pinch) and its races 
 (Taeniopygia castanotis). 
 
 a. Race with orange bill. 
 
 b. Race with paler flanks. 
 
 c. Race with vermilion bill. 
 
 d. Race being palest. 
 
 e. Race greyer above than b; the upper surface 
 
 brown. 
 
TASMANIA 169 
 
 anything in nature, naturally making them an at- 
 tractive family. 
 
 The most southern species is the Fire-tail (Zonae- 
 ginthus bellus) meaning zone belt; aiginthus, a 
 hedge sparrow, and bellus, beautiful. It belongs 
 to the order of sparrows, having a brilliant scarlet 
 rump. 
 
 There are more than twenty species of finches, 
 yet only one of them is found in this isolated island 
 state. 
 
 Map 71 shows the area of distribution of the 
 Fire-tail and it would be thoroughly interesting to 
 know its courses of migration. About Adelaide it 
 will probably be bathic and in Tasmania, north- 
 south. 
 
 PARROT-LIKE BIRDS IN TASMANIA 
 
 There are three quite differently coloured Cock- 
 atoos in Tasmania, a white, a black and a grey. 
 The black is more numerous and has yellow cheeks. 
 In Western Australia there is a black cockatoo 
 very much like this one, with all the yellow dis- 
 placed in favour of white. Map 72 shows this as 
 western representation. Both are useful birds in 
 eating out excess of timber-destroying insects. 
 
 The Grass Parrots stay in the open and barely 
 approach the fringe of the forests. There are two 
 species in Tasmania. 
 
 The Broad-tailed Parrots include the rosellas, 
 and here again we have eastern and western repre- 
 
170 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 82 
 
 The family of Tree-creepers (Climacteris) in 
 South Australia. 
 
 a. Pale Rufous Tree-creeper. 
 
 b. Lower Murray Brown Tree-creeper. 
 
 c. White-throated Tree-creeper. 
 
 d. White-browed Tree-creeper. 
 
 Waite's race of b (Loc. Cooper's Creek). 
 See F. E. Howe, Emu xxi., pt. 1; p. 41. 
 f. Distribution of Tree-creepers over Australia 
 (spotted area). 
 
TASMANIA 171 
 
 sentation, a white-cheeked and a yellow-cheeked. 
 The case is parallel with the Black Cockatoos, but 
 the colour is reversed. Our common Rosella has 
 the white cheeks, the yellow being on the western 
 bird. 
 
 Map 72 states that 75 per cent of the Broad-tails 
 are found in area C. 
 
 The Brush-tongued Parrots are the Lories, and 
 they are sugar-eaters. 
 
 Tasmania has no representative of the very beau- 
 tiful Long-tailed Parrots or of the Fig-birds. So 
 far as the latter are concerned Tasmania has no 
 fig forests for them to feed upon, and consequently 
 no inducement for them to come. 
 
 DIAMOND BIRDS IN THE SOUTH 
 
 (Plate 2, Fig. 73) 
 Tree Builders and Bank Builders. 
 
 By Diamond Birds we generally understand the 
 genus Pardalotus. Some of them make nests in 
 hollows of trees ; the spotted species in rounded 
 holes of creek banks. The eggs are white and in- 
 clined to be round, and for so small a bird quite 
 large and numerous. 
 
 The Forty-spotted Diamond Bird is purely Tas- 
 manian, giving preference to the highest timber in 
 the wettest forests, map 73, "a." It is the 
 smallest of the genus and is seen only by one man 
 in a thousand, because of its diminutive size and 
 great distance from the ground. 
 
172 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP S3 
 
 Parrot-like birds and their Races, in South Australia. 
 
 A Glossy Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus viridis). 
 
 a. The species. 
 
 a 1 . The race (Kangaroo Island). 
 
 B Races of the Crimson Parrot (P. pennanti). 
 
 b. Fleurieu Pen. Rosella. 
 b 1 . Adelaide Rosella. 
 
 b 2 . Port Augusta Rosella. 
 
 b 8 (i.e. a 1 ) Kangaroo Island Crimson Parrot. 
 
 C c 1 South Australian race of Yellow Parrot c (P. 
 flaveolus). 
 
 D Flinders Range Race of the Ring-necked Parrot 
 (Barnardius barnardi). 
 
 E Pale race of Yellow-vented Parrot (Psephotus 
 xanthorrhous). 
 
TASMANIA 1 73 
 
 The Yellow-tipped Diamond Bird (P. affinis) is 
 found as indicated in b. A diamond bird with a 
 yellow speculum is also found in West Australia, 
 confusing the distribution of the species. To the 
 present writer it is a race rather than a species. 
 
 The genus has one peculiarity which we trace in 
 the species P. ornatus. It is trimorphic, having a 
 variable wing spot. In one bird it is red; in 
 another, yellow; in a third, orange; all being 
 broadly distributed. 
 
 HONEY-EATERS (Meliphagidae; meli, honey; 
 phagein, to eat) 
 
 (Plate 2, Figs. 36, 74; Plate 3, Figs. 78, 79) 
 
 The honey-eaters make a family, the leading 
 character being the bifid or brush like tongue. This 
 gives them greater facility in gathering sweet 
 juices from the flower glands. 
 
 The family is divided into twenty-four parts 
 (genera) of which areas a, c, together in map 74 
 have nine parts. The interesting point is that each 
 of these parts, with one exception, has only one 
 species. 
 
 The distribution in this map bears a strong 
 resemblance to that of map 73. From what we 
 know of the expansion of bird areas, it would seem 
 that the W.A. birds arose from those in Victoria 
 (Bassian sub-region). These had their origin in 
 
174 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 84 
 Dry-belt Cockatoos. 
 
 A Pink Cockatoo or Major Mitchell (Cacatua lead- 
 beaten). 
 
 B Blood-stained Cockatoo or Corella; white skin 
 round eye. (C. sanguinea). 
 
 C Bare-eyed Cockatoo (C. gymnotis), blue skin 
 round eye. 
 
 a b c Mt. Lofty, Kangaroo Island and Eyre 
 Peninsula races of Scrub Wren (Sericornis). 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 175 
 
 Queensland, the Torresian sub-region ; Tasmania 
 being the now isolated terminal. 
 
 Honey-eaters are everywhere in Australia; in 
 the driest, in the wettest, in the warmest, in the 
 coldest ; though not breeding at so high an altitude 
 as the Pipit. Some are modest in plumage colour, 
 others beautiful in brillancy. There are numerous 
 structural pecularities, the Spine-bill of Tasmania, 
 having the longest and most wonderful beak, while 
 the Friar Bird is bare headed. 
 
 SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 
 
 Areas 6 7 
 
 The areas 6, 7, map 1, are subject to a flood or a 
 drought, a feast or a famine. 
 
 When an all absorbing drought has established 
 itself in the back country of Australia most birds 
 make an effort to get away, while others new to 
 the country come along with the desperate hope 
 of getting food and drink. 
 
 The last to hang on to the homestead supplies 
 are the Chestnut-eared Finch, the Budgerigar 
 Shell-Parrot and the Crested Pigeon. Tit- Warblers 
 just exist in endless belts of mulga scrub, while 
 Wren-Warblers get food and drink in the succulent 
 leaves of salt bushes. The White-face (Xerophila) 
 is evidently the most common bird over the wide 
 tracts of southern salsolaceous country about Lake 
 Gardner. 
 
176 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 85 
 Wren- Warblers (Maluri). 
 
 a. Adelaide Blue Wren-Warbler. 
 
 b. Kangaroo Island Black-backed Blue Wren- 
 
 Warbler. 
 
 c. Port Germain Dark Turquoise Wren-Warbler. 
 
 d. Peacock-backed Turquoise Wren- Warbler. 
 
 e. Interior Light Turquoise Wren-Warbler. 
 
 f. White-backed Wren-Warbler. 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 177 
 
 The Wedge-tailed Eagle thrives on the unhappy 
 feeble turkeys and emus ; taking toll of animals too 
 weak for substantial defence. The Galah Cockatoo 
 by careful search will find food in fallen seeds of 
 salt bush and grasses. The Bare-eyed Cockatoo 
 goes north to the better country of N.W. Queens- 
 land. Thousands of birds of various small sized 
 species quietly stay beneath the low cover and no 
 longer see the open or the early morning burning 
 sun. Their food has gone and their present end 
 has come. Their bodies just cease to be. The next 
 flood will take a year or two to repair the destruc- 
 tion of feathered life and the erratic balance of 
 things. Birds will lay twice the quantity of eggs 
 in the season, and the waiting millions of seeds will 
 germinate. The land is already again blossoming 
 and yielding its prosperity. 
 
 The low-rainfall country between Victoria and 
 South Australia has had the effect of making in the 
 southern part of South Australia races derived from 
 Victorian species. The uncertainty of many of 
 these races remaining constant is deepened by the 
 result of good seasons in the north bringing over 
 by immigration quantities of the parent stock from 
 other areas. 
 
 We find this in the Babblers, Tree-creepers, and 
 Honey-eaters. The Blue-bellied Lorikeet is a race 
 in Eyre Peninsula, and it annually migrates be- 
 tween Queensland and the Peninsula, via the Dia- 
 
178 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 a 
 
 MAP 86 
 Two Honey-eaters with featherless tracts: 
 
 a. Southern limit of Yellow-throated Friar Bird (P. 
 citreogularis) absent from b; and larger and 
 darker than in area c. 
 
 d. Blue-faced Entomyza; absent in south-west, pre- 
 sent in north-west (E. cyanotis). 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 179 
 
 mintina River. The Rainbow Bee-eater does the 
 same. 
 
 This appears to be the main line of migration 
 for South Australian birds, map 75, a second line 
 being along the Murray and Darling basins. 
 
 KEY TO THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES 
 
 Our interest is invited to map 76 and its text. 
 A robin is given as an example of a bird showing 
 geographic differences according to the type of 
 country in which it is living. It fairly well par- 
 titions South Australia into climatic and vegetarian 
 differences. Flinders Range, the northern end of 
 the South Australian highlands, has its direction 
 north and south. As it passes northward there is 
 a tendency for the birds to yield their coastal char- 
 acters in favour of those of Central Australian 
 birds. This is particularly so at the north end 
 where the range passes through plains into the 
 interior. The pittosporum and quondong (Fus- 
 anus) yield tender berries to berry-eating species, 
 the acacias provide tough seeds for the strong bills 
 of the Cockatoos. Native fuchsia bushes (Eremo- 
 phila) attract the Pied Honey-eaters. Callitris, the 
 native pine, shelters many birds. 
 
 Passing over porcupine bush the great interior 
 is entered. The waterless mulga scrub and soft 
 sand harbour the one common species, Thick-billed 
 Thornbill ; a bird living on insects for food and 
 
 drink. In the dry grassed sandy open tracts an 
 12 
 
180 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 87 
 Bower Birds in South Australia. 
 
 a. Spotted Bower Bird (Chlamydera maculata). 
 
 b. Yellow-spotted Bower Bird (C. guttata). 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 181 
 
 occasional Pipit or Bush Chat is seen. The granite 
 ranges are best for the majority of birds. The end- 
 less dry water courses lined with red gums (Eu- 
 calyptus rostrata) harbour Diamond Birds and 
 Tree-Tits. 
 
 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN RACES OF 
 TIT-WARBLERS 
 
 Many of the very small grey birds we see in the 
 creek scrub, dry hill sides, or away in the hot 
 country are Tit-Warblers. The common Yellow- 
 Tail is one. 
 
 Together they make a very large assemblage or 
 genus and as they have got into all sorts of coun- 
 try and stayed there, the colour of the plumage has 
 come to be in sympathy with its surroundings. It 
 then becomes a race. Map 77 shows the races, as 
 well as we know them, in different parts in South 
 Australia. They comprise a central southern group 
 of races. 
 
 The race extending from Musgrave Range, A, to 
 Murchison East, W.A., B, is remarkable in so far 
 as it extends over one thousand miles east to west 
 along an average rainfall zone of seven inches. In 
 South Australia the vegetation is mulga (Acacia 
 aneura) and it extends some great distance west- 
 ward. 
 
 The Thick-billed Tit- Warbler (A. robustiros- 
 tris) is about the only bird to be found over wide 
 areas of this thousand miles. If there are any 
 
182 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 88 
 Rainfall controlling distribution: 
 
 a. Grass Finches (Poephila) Extensive Northern 
 
 Australian family. 
 
 b. Tit- Warblers (Acanthiza). Extensive Southern 
 
 Australian family. 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 183 
 
 insects to be found it will get them. The whole 
 family is noted for its insect eating ways and ac- 
 cordingly it is always placed among the most 
 valuable of economic birds. K in map 77, is the tit- 
 warbler that keeps to the samphire scrub of St. 
 Vincent's Gulf; the vegetation, having had a con- 
 trolling influence, has made a race of it. 
 
 VARIATION GROWS FROM EAST TO WEST 
 (Plate 3, Fig. 78) 
 
 Birds are like the hills in so far as they are 
 always changing. Though time does work the 
 change both take a long while about it. 
 
 The Brown-headed Honey-eater is in countless 
 numbers in the Victorian forests, and is fairly uni- 
 form in colour. Getting towards South Australia 
 it, at first, has a mallee change, then a, b, c, in map 
 78. Further west on the Nullabor Plain it becomes 
 the western species with a white mark, d. This 
 is quite an obscure honey-eater; difficult to know 
 except when on the wing. 
 
 The Western White-eared Honey-eater, c, is 
 differentiated from A, and the Kangaroo Island "a" 
 is an island race of b, as c is a desert race of b. 
 
 In the coastal scrubs of Victoria and Southern 
 New South Wales it is a common species. The 
 nest is made of the hair of kangaroo or cattle, with 
 grass inside. The eggs, excepting for a few spots, 
 are white, which is uncommon in this family. 
 
184 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 89 
 
 Desert barrier in operation; northern and southern 
 races of Melithreptus (Honey-eater). 
 
 A Brown-headed Honey-eater I 1 M. leucogenys 
 
 I 2 M. brevirostris. 
 
 White-naped Honey-eater 1' M. chloropsis. 
 
 I 2 M. lunulatus. 
 
 B White-throated Honey-eater 2 1 M. albogularis. 
 
 2 M. laetior. 
 
 Tasmania Strong billed H.E. (M. validirostris). 
 
 Black-headed H.E. (M. melanocephalus). 
 Island Bl. head. H.E. (M. magnirostris). 
 M. gularis distributed over Australia. 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 185 
 
 COLOUR GRADES 
 
 (Plate 3, Fig. 78) 
 1. Genus; 2. Species; 3. Race. 
 
 To know a bird and get definition we look quickly 
 at the colours to see the scheme. After a moment's 
 hesitation we decide the genus to be such or such; 
 perhaps a genus of honey-eaters. The colour 
 scheme may be spots, streaks or splashes, or defin- 
 ite solid areas that will change or vary in intensity 
 among its species. These will always be true to 
 colour, even if varying in quality. It is this vari- 
 ation in quality that gives us the race which is not 
 quite the species. It shows a definite difference in 
 colour or form due to differences in country or 
 climate. 
 
 A good example of a species is given in map 79, 
 5, and its five races 4, 3, 2, 1, a, lessening in inten- 
 sity from 5 to 1 a, 5 being larger than 1. It is the 
 White-plumed Honey-eater. Another race is a, 
 
 b, c, the Leaser White-plumed Honey-eater (P. 
 leilavalensis). The points of interest are that it 
 is a smaller bird than the southern bird and has 
 a brighter coloured head. Both these points are 
 in keeping with a law applied to nearly all birds 
 having a long range of habitat north and south e.g. 
 Cloncurry "a," Central Australia b, Flinders Range 
 
 c. If it had extended south to 5 it would have lost 
 its bright head colour. 
 
186 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 90 
 The relationship with Northern Queensland e.g.: 
 
 1. Purple Kingfisher (Alcyone pulchra). 
 
 2. Mangrove Kingfisher (Halcyon sordidus). 
 
 3. Scrub Fowl (Megapodius tumulus). 
 
 4. White-browed Crake (P. leucophrys). 
 
 5. Yellow Oriole (O. flavicinctus). 
 
 6. Finches (Stizoptera). 
 
 7. Partridge Pigeons (Geophaps). 
 
 8. Black-tail Tree-creeper (C. melanura). 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 187 
 
 CHAIN DISTRIBUTION 
 
 Mt. Lofty is one terminal, of distribution of the 
 Red-browed Finch, map 80. The bird, having a 
 browner head than the Bassian one (Vic. 
 N.S.W.), becomes a race of it. The Cape York bird, 
 5, is the smallest of all the species and becomes the 
 Least Red-browed Finch. 
 
 The largest is found at 4, where birds usually are 
 larger. It is the most numerous of all the finches 
 and makes the largest nest, which is bottle shaped. 
 This small- bird lays six pure white eggs. The 
 young has a black bill and dark eye brow during 
 the first few months, after which it becomes the 
 "wax bill" with blood red on the rump and eye- 
 brow. 
 
 It is occasionally the foster parent of insect- 
 eating cuckoos and helps to prove to us that seed- 
 eating birds feed their own young on insects. 
 
 ZEBRA FINCH AND ITS RACES 
 
 Finches of the several species live in very differ- 
 ent kinds of places and in many ways. In Europe 
 the true finches prefer the timber, the buntings the 
 open, the snow-finch the coldest country, the high- 
 est mountains the bull-finch, while the desert has 
 its types. 
 
 The canary finch is a song bird, which is unusual 
 with finches. 
 
 The Redpoll of Europe and Asia is the greatest 
 of emigrants, leaving the Arctic just before the 
 
188 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 91 
 
 The relationship with Southern Queensland e.g. 
 Ground Wren (Hylacola). 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 189 
 
 snow falls and getting into Africa and India after 
 the monsoon. 
 
 The Gold-Finch is an imported bird and well 
 established. 
 
 Among the Australian finches the Zebra or Chest- 
 nut-eared Finch is the most widely distributed. Its 
 stronghold is in the south east, map 81, "a," and 
 it varies in plumage all over the continent accord- 
 ing to the physical conditions. It comes of a happy 
 family. At the close of day a dozen will sleep in 
 the same nest; a bottle-shaped loosely built house 
 of grass. A pair will build in the lower sticks of 
 hawk's nest and in fourteen days the young hatch 
 out like little hairy creatures with no sign of 
 feathers. After they join the nearest flock they get 
 fed by the nearest bird having anything to give 
 away. These young birds, hatched in October, will 
 have their own young in March. After a decent 
 rain every "zebra" that can lay eggs does so, and 
 the winter sees an amazing cloud of them. 
 
 THE FAMILY OF TREE-CREEPERS 
 
 (Climacteris) 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 28; Plate 3, Fig. 82) 
 
 There is one general or three minor colour- 
 schemes in Tree-creepers. Four species are found 
 in South Australia, map 82, a d. 
 
 The family is represented in every part of Aus- 
 tralia. Three species in South Australia have their 
 
190 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 92 
 
 The Great Interior (Rainfall: 3.5 inches poor season; 
 20 in good season). 
 
 Well-known examples: 
 
 1. White-winged Wren-Warbler (M. cyanotus). 
 
 2. Cinnamon Ground Bird (C. cinnamomeum). 
 
 3. White-faces (see map 92). 
 
 4. Crested Wedge-Bill (Sphenostoma). 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 191 
 
 terminals at a, b, c. The species d is found in the 
 centre of the continent. 
 
 The Rufous species is the western representa- 
 tive of the Brown species. The rufous seems to 
 be the result of the particular country acting on 
 the brown plumage! The young of the White- 
 throated species has its upper tail coverts rufous, 
 which entirely disappear with the next moult. 
 What is the relation to the rufous species? Can it 
 be the remnant of a sporadic migration from the 
 desert! The forest would have the tendency to 
 obscure its rufous and convert it into grey. In 
 some species, the young, the male parent and the 
 female all differ in colouration. 
 
 In the Red-browed species it is the female that is 
 more beautiful in plumage than the male, a re- 
 vision of the sexual law in relation to colour. 
 
 They have their food beats, travelling along a 
 line of trees in the morning, and returning in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 PARROT-LIKE BIRDS AND THEIR RACES 
 
 Anyone leisurely walking a hundred miles across 
 country will emerge from one forest with one type 
 of bird to enter another containing a race of that 
 species. 
 
 He or she, may pass from the southern mallee to 
 the northern part of it, and there see a race of the 
 species previously seen. It is quite possible when 
 passing from the mainland to an island to find on it 
 
192 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 93 
 
 Distribution over Australia. 
 
 Migratory. Nomadic. Local. 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 193 
 
 a race of the well-established mainland species. If 
 one leaves Flinders Range and enters the Eyrean 
 desert he will surely find a race of the bird observed 
 in the range. Map 83 indicates examples. 
 
 The Glossy Cockatoo of the Australian Alps 
 changes in shade when it becomes an old inhabitant 
 of Kangaroo Island. 
 
 The Rosellas belonging to the section of Crimson 
 Parrots are referred to in b, b 1 , b 1 , b 8 . 
 
 The Yellow Parrot, c 1 , that the Adelaide district 
 gathers to itself, has its stronghold in c. The cli- 
 mate is not the same, neither is the tone of plu- 
 mage. 
 
 All these parrots feed in different types of coun- 
 try, on different forms of vegetation, and racial 
 shades approximate to the surroundings. 
 
 One change takes longer to make than the whole 
 of the allotted span of man's life. 
 
 DRY BELT COCKATOOS 
 
 Dampier in 1699 was the first to discover cocka- 
 toos. On the western coast of Australia, A, B, C, 
 congregate. Because of the mountain range and 
 another type of food upon the eastern coast, they 
 do not approach it. Map 84 shows that the dis- 
 tribution is more central than littoral. 
 
 The Pink Cockatoo is a lover of the desert, fre- 
 quenting the native wells morning and evening. 
 It is the most beautiful of the "white section" when 
 its picturesque wings are fully exhibited. 
 
194 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 94 
 Irregular origin. 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 195 
 
 Map 84, B, shows the habitat of the Corella to be 
 extended to the Dampier Archipelago. It associ- 
 ates in flocks of thousands on Cooper Creek and 
 the great northern plains, even to the number of 
 fifty thousand at a time. If there is any preference 
 it is for the damp fields of Coolibar or Flooded Box 
 (Eucalyptus). A horseman travelling through the 
 desert towards evening will watch the gleam of 
 wings and eventually find the water hole. In one 
 tree near that hole quite 1500 birds will settle: in 
 the other trees the grand total of 75,000. Drought 
 is the reason of such a vast congregation round one 
 water hole; probably the last drinking hole in that 
 district. It feeds on roots using its splendid bill 
 for this purpose. 
 
 C, in map 84, includes the area of distribution 
 of the race Ashbyi, north of the silver lead Barrier 
 Range. 
 
 SCRUB WRENS (Sericornis) 
 (Plate 3, Fig. 84) 
 
 Scrub Wrens are local with a love of tangle and 
 a dislike of the open. Rank vegetation appeals to 
 them. The two kinds in this part of Australia are 
 the Spotted and the White-browed. Then follow 
 innumerable differences in plumage according to 
 the type of forest and its locality, and these geo- 
 graphical differences make races. 
 
 In South Australia we certainly have three races 
 
 13 
 
196 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 95 
 
 Colour tri-section: three principal groups of 
 Wren-Warblers (Malurus). 
 
 a. Red-backed Wren-Warbler. 
 
 b. White-backed Wren-Warbler. 
 
 c. Blue Wren-Warbler. 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 197 
 
 about Mt. Lofty, Kangaroo Island, and Eyre Pen- 
 insula, map 84, a, b, c. 
 
 The nest is generally placed low to the earth. 
 Each morning, for half an hour, building operations 
 are carried on, while the grasses are pliable with 
 dew; 6 o'clock being the time to start. Work may 
 not be quite suspended before 12 noon, when an 
 adjournment is made to 6 a.m. 
 
 On the seventh day an egg is laid, a second on 
 the ninth and a third on the eleventh. On the 
 fourteenth the bird firmly sits. The eggs are laid 
 on the forenoons and the young hatch out on the 
 twenty-third day from laying the last egg. The 
 young fly on the fifteenth day from the breaking of 
 the shell. 
 
 Next day the young and old begin a nomadic life. 
 
 WREN-WARBLERS (Maluri) 
 (Plate 3, Fig. S5) 
 
 Races of birds in South Australia have been 
 emphasized in the preceding pages. In map 85, 
 a f, we get an impression of the distribution of a 
 genus in South Australia, and if we examine the 
 altered country near each species we will again 
 find races. 
 
 Wren- Warblers are without doubt among the 
 most resplendent of red, white and blue birds, with 
 attractive ways and pleasant voice. 
 
 They moult their colour in the Autumn and get 
 a fresh set for the Spring. The hen is always 
 
198 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 96 
 Normal Areas. 
 
 A, Northern; B, North-Western ; C, Western; 
 
 D, Southern; E, Central. 
 
 Junction areas: A A; B B; D D 
 
 The arrow K indicates one direction of annual 
 
 immigration from Papua. 
 
 The arrow H indicates direction of earliest 
 migration to populate western areas 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 199 
 
 brownish and the young begin as browns. These 
 hatch out in fourteen days, and leave the nest on 
 the ninth or tenth day after being hatched. 
 
 The white-backed section keeps more to the 
 interior, with its salt-bush and cotton-bush plains. 
 
 SOUTHERN YELLOW-THROATED FRIAR 
 BIRD 
 
 BLUE-FACED HONEY-EATER 
 
 The Friar Bird, or Leather-head, is one of the 
 large honey-eaters without feathers on its cowl- 
 like head. 
 
 It is a bird with an abundance of confidence in 
 itself, as it will continuously steal from orchards 
 unless effectually stopped. Map 86, a, approxi- 
 mately shows the southern limit of its range from 
 north to south. It is a bird of the warm inland 
 parts and gets smaller in size the further north it 
 is found. In the several islands off northern Aus- 
 tralia there are a number of species of Friar Birds 
 and there are a number of other birds (Orioles) 
 mimicing them. It is a good case of protective 
 mimicry ; the weak resembling the strong in colour. 
 
 The Blue-faced Honey-eater is also an interior 
 species, not passing the Great Divide in the south. 
 It is large bodied, with a brilliant blue green face, 
 and may be considered a handsome bird. In the 
 breeding season it has the rather strange way of 
 using the nest of the Babbler by building its own 
 
200 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 97 
 
 Unusual combination of species and areas: Coastal 
 and Eyrean (inland). 
 
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 201 
 
 inside. It has the impression that might is right, 
 as it steals piecemeal, or as a whole, a nest of the 
 Babbler or Miner. It may even add to it while 
 under construction by the rightful owner. It has 
 two families in the season. 
 
 BOWER-BUILDING BIRDS 
 
 The Cat Bird and the Regent Bird of the tropical 
 coastal scrubs of New South Wales and Queens- 
 land are included in the bower builders. The Satin 
 Bird is found in the Otway Forest, having extended 
 westward from the extra tropical coastal land. 
 
 Several species of bower birds are found in the 
 dry interior and the northern fringes if it. Among 
 these are the two shown in map 87, a, b. The lead- 
 ing characteristics of the family are the playground 
 and beautifully marked eggs. Among the pines 
 and bullokes, or beneath a bursaria bush, there may 
 be placed on the ground a structure of twigs. 
 
 This would be quite two feet in length, with 
 heaps of bones and coloured things at the ends. 
 Quondong berries and bright feathers would be 
 conspicuous. As many as a thousand bones have 
 been accumulated. 
 
 Each time a bird comes to play it brings a shell 
 or other thing. Some land shells are most con- 
 spicuous. They enjoy the play each morning just 
 as other birds enjoy their less attractive games. It 
 has become a pass time in a fixed place, and in a 
 building made by themselves for the purpose. 
 
202 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 98 
 
 Wide -spread Groups 
 
 Day -flying Sea-birds. 
 Night-flying Sea-birds. 
 Inland Groups. 
 
 A The most southerly nesting ground of tropical 
 sea-birds (Noddy and Sooty Terns), and 
 northerly nesting ground of petrels. 
 
 B The nesting grounds of Penguins and Southern 
 Geese (Cereopsis). 
 
 C Pipit (Anthus): races c 1 c 5 according to the 
 colour of the ground. 
 
 D The northern and eastern habitat of the greatest 
 petrel, the Kerguelen Albatross (D. chionop- 
 tera). 
 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA 203 
 
 WESTERN AUSTRALIA 
 
 Areas 9 7 9 , 8 7 8 
 
 1. The bird fauna of the north is divided from 
 the south by a desert. The origins of nearly all the 
 families in a and b, map 88, are separately derived 
 from the east of Australia, along a northern line 
 and a southern one; along the rainfall zones of 20 
 inches and 10 inches. In the latter case, prior to 
 the subsidence of the Australian Bight old coast 
 line, the rainfall was more in keeping with 20 
 inches. 
 
 Some of those birds used to living in a forest of 
 40 inch rainfall in south-east Australia, gradually 
 went west. They are now preserved in the small 
 area of 40 inches in the south-west. Those birds 
 in the links between, through not accommodating 
 themselves to the wearing away of a 40 inch rain- 
 fall coast in favor of a 10 inch zone, died out. Thus 
 we get eastern and western representation of a 
 species with a broad gap. The less specialised 
 birds of b worked up the coast from Perth and 
 Geraldton districts to the Ashburton country with 
 an annual rainfall of 8 inches. This is their north- 
 ern limit. 
 
 2. The northern line of expansion, "a," from 
 Queensland, was as much coastal as the southern 
 line, but with different types of birds. Here we 
 have the genera of a moist hot coast line, and the 
 finches of the parallel extensive grass lands. 
 
204 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 99 
 The Coastal Range; a barrier to distribution 
 
 1. Coastal: Western Scarlet-breasted Robin; White- 
 
 browed Spine-bill; Long-billed Honey-eater; 
 Moustached Honey-eater. 
 
 2. Ultramontane: Crested Bell Bird; White-winged 
 
 Wren- Warbler; Chestnut-backed Ground Bird; 
 White-browed Chatterer. 
 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA 205 
 
 These birds go south and meet the southern 
 species between the Gascoyne and Ashburton 
 Rivers. 
 
 3. Inland from the whole of the coast of Western 
 Australia we meet dry country birds with a ten- 
 dency to be paler in plumage than the coastal birds. 
 In the ground loving birds the colour will be 
 according to the type of country upon which the 
 bird is living. This is where we find colour pro- 
 tection on a grand scale. 
 
 4. The outland or island fauna is rather remark- 
 able. The Houtman Abrolhos e.g. are made up 
 of the most southerly coral islands in the Common- 
 wealth, and they are the meeting ground of myriads 
 of northern terns and southern petrels. Here they 
 nest in thousands, the first on the ground the sec- 
 ond below it in burrows. 
 
 DESERT BARRIER IN OPERATION 
 
 Birds of the north-west. 
 Birds of the south-west. 
 
 Where there is a great desert there is no natural 
 facility to cross it. The tendency is to act as an 
 obstruction rather than to encourage travel or ex- 
 pansion. The migratory birds offer no objection, 
 as they journey miles above it, and close on a 
 thousand miles before alighting. 
 
 With local birds of internal migration it is a 
 very serious matter when a dull broad stretch of 
 
206 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 100 
 Black Cockatoos: 
 
 a. White-tailed Cockatoo. 
 
 b. Great-billed Cockatoo. 
 
 c. Red-tailed Cockatoo. 
 
 j The Black Cockatoo. 
 
 d. J Banksian Cockatoo. 
 
 | Glossy Cockatoo. 
 
 e. Yellow-eared Cockatoo. 
 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA 207 
 
 weary foodless land is met. They simply do not 
 carry on and in this way we get a barrier as shown 
 in map 89, I 1 2 1 . 
 
 Many species travel westward from the Carpen- 
 taria country with the hope of getting south of the 
 great sand-central. 
 
 On the Nullabor Plain in the Australian Bight 
 many birds have travelled westward with the 
 embryo hope also of going north ; getting a similar 
 set-back in a similar form of trouble. Thus we get 
 two faunas separately kept apart. This is shown 
 in the text of map 89 by the example Melithreptus, 
 a genus of honey-eaters containing millions of 
 individuals in the four corners of the Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 RELATIONSHIP WITH NORTHERN 
 QUEENSLAND 
 
 The birds of the northern portion of West Aus- 
 tralia are closely related to those of North Queens- 
 land. Map 90 means that the birds of areas 8 and 
 1, map 1, are the birds of 2, 3, 4, while the birds of 
 3, 4, 5 have many species different from each other, 
 and a great number not found in 8, 7 8 , 1, 7 1 . Area 
 2 is the fountain head from which arose the birds 
 of areas 1 and 4. All these areas have a few species 
 quite their own, and for that reason they have their 
 own identity. The text of map 90 gives examples 
 of birds commonly found only in 8, 1, 2: (1, 2, 3). 
 
208 
 
 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 MAP 101 
 
 The north-western sea-line, and distribution of its 
 principal birds. 
 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA 209 
 
 The two most interesting birds found only in 
 areas 8 and 1 are the Rock Pigeons (Petrophassa) 
 and Rainbow Pitta (P. iris). The Pitta is derived 
 from area 1. 
 
 The Carter Desert Bird is not found outside of 
 8, 7 8 , and is the only genus, among a number, that 
 has the nearest relative in India. 
 
 In area 8 the desert approaches the sea, and the 
 family of Bush Larks (Mirafra) takes on the plu- 
 mage that agrees with the surroundings ; cinnamon, 
 grey, or pale brown. Bush Larks, with the loveliest 
 voices in the noon of night, are found all over 
 Australia. 
 
 THE RELATIONSHIP WITH SOUTHERN 
 QUEENSLAND 
 
 Nearly all the birds of South-west Australia are 
 more closely related to the birds of Southern 
 Queensland and New South Wales than to the 
 birds of any other portion of the Commonwealth. 
 They have travelled along the coastal lands, or by 
 means of the Murray River system, or in a lesser 
 degree by the Lake Eyre system. A general con- 
 vergence is noticeable about Port Augusta. Con- 
 tinuing the journey they travel through salt bush 
 and across the Nullabor Plain into the further 
 west. 
 
 The Ground Wren (Hylacola) map 91, is a good 
 example of a species taking centuries to travel on 
 and on in coastal types of wooded land. 
 
210 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 The Purple-crowned Lorikeet is a good example 
 of a strong quick flying bird that could easily take 
 a northern course from Queensland to West Aus- 
 tralia, but has not done so. The Ground Parrot 
 (Pezoporus) has travelled from near the border of 
 coastal Queensland around Port Phillip and Port 
 Augusta to the port of Perth. The Field Wrens 
 (Calamanthus) not only take the coastal course of 
 expansion but in addition they have worked inward 
 from Port Augusta to Lake Eyre. 
 
 The general tendency of all these birds of the 
 east is to become paler in the west, excepting the 
 few confined to the wet forests of Southern Queens- 
 land and South-west Australia, e.g. Bristle Bird 
 (Sphenura). 
 
 THE GREAT INTERIOR 
 (Plate 3, Fig. 92) 
 
 The vast hot furthest back country of this island- 
 continent is a land of nomads, living under con- 
 ditions more or less desert like, suitable only to the 
 fit. Under this head are placed in the text of map 
 92 examples of capables weathering through great 
 stress of drought. More often than not they are 
 short of food and living under the necessity of 
 travelling long distances on short notice. 
 
 It is rather wonderful that so frail a bird as the 
 Wren-Warbler is able to live for months in a 
 waterless land, getting its drink in its food, and 
 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA 21 1 
 
 very dry at that. There is in the mulga country a 
 Tit-Warbler that passes through a drought when 
 every other bird has gone: migrated or starved. 
 The bright prospect in the break of a drought is 
 the multitude of regular nomads that quickly come 
 in to feed and breed, until again forced out. 
 
 A good season makes the country capable of 
 carrying innumerable seed-eaters, insect and native 
 fruit-eaters. Geographical distribution is now 
 broad and variable. Flocks of pigeons and quail 
 travel over, ground never before flown across by 
 that generation. They wander up creek beds that 
 have been dust bins for years, and now have diffi- 
 culty in keeping their feet dry. Large families are 
 produced, and the great interior is again a flower 
 picture; a garden with the hum of insects and a 
 wealth of dry-country bird life. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OVER AUSTRALIA 
 (PL 3, figs. 93, 98; PL 2, fig. 35; PL 1, fig. 32; PL 3, fig. 84) 
 
 True migratory birds fly over and beyond the 
 continent of Australia from north to south in Sep- 
 tember, and from south to north in April. They 
 have a wing pattern that serves them well in their 
 long flight to Siberia. 
 
 The Bronze Cuckoo, map 93, also flies through 
 Australia, but keeps to it. It has a wing less 
 specialised for so long a journey as the sand-pipers 
 make. 
 
 The quail are nomads, travelling in directions 
 
 14 
 
212 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 which may vary in quantity and quality of insect 
 life and seeds, just as thousands of water birds do, 
 when their swamps dry out (Tribonyx). 
 
 The Crow and the Pipit are well distributed, the 
 the former being local in large areas extending to a 
 third of the continent. The latter is constant to 
 limited areas e.g. the height and depth of a moun- 
 tain, or a plain between two mountain ranges, or 
 small portions of an indefinitely unbounded plain. 
 Several species are local in the southern summer, 
 and local in the north in winter (Chats). 
 
 The Magpie-Lark and Scrub-Wrens are local 
 throughout the year. There are thirty species of 
 purely Australian birds commonly found over 
 Western Australia and all over Australia. To 
 these might be added approximately another thirty 
 species which come in from Asia, to spend the six 
 summer months in Australia. 
 
 IRREGULAR ORIGIN 
 
 There is a bird in the far north-west living away 
 from most other birds, by name the Carter Desert 
 Bird (Eremiornis carteri). If it has company we 
 may conclude it is the Bush Lark (Mirafra). Both 
 these birds have an African origin, via India, but 
 they do not seem to have immigrated into Western 
 Australia by way of Northern Queensland. The 
 Desert Bird is found only in N.W.A. though I sus- 
 pect it was once in the west of the Northern Terri- 
 tory coming across direct from Timor. The Bush 
 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA 213 
 
 Lark probably did the same, and more ; viz., spread 
 east and south, and west, taking on the colours of 
 the deserts and fitting in with difficult conditions; 
 map 94. 
 
 The Desert Bird belongs to the family of Warb- 
 lers and is not unlike our Reed Warbler ; though its 
 nearest relative (Schoeniclus) is in India. 
 
 COLOUR TRISECTION 
 (Plate 3, Fig. 85) 
 
 If one could get a mental picture of the finest 
 colour distribution amongst birds in Western Aus- 
 tralia, it would seem to be red, white and blue, as 
 indicated in map 95. These are the Red-backed 
 Wren- Warblers, "a": the White-backed Wren- 
 Warblers, b; and the Blue Wren Warblers, c. 
 
 It is an interesting colour range on three types 
 of country extending tremendous distances. Within 
 each separate distance the blue will alter, e.g. from 
 light to dark turquoise, or the bird will take on a 
 purplish back. The reds will weaken when they 
 are found in areas 7, 8, map 1. 
 
 There is a general tendency in Eastern Australia, 
 between Torres and Bass Straits, for the birds of 
 any one species of any family to have three grades 
 of colour, a northern brilliancy, a southern dullness, 
 and just beyond the tropics a medium standard. 
 The silvery cobalt of the Northern Wren-Warblers, 
 grades into the deep cobalt of the southern Wren- 
 Warblers, 
 is 
 
214 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 NATURAL AREAS OF WESTERN 
 AUSTRALIA 
 
 Centuries have felt the influence of birds living 
 in definite areas, all the year round, or migrating to 
 and from them annually. 
 
 These areas having different types of vegeta- 
 tion have many forms of birds. So marked are they 
 that millions of finches will feed on grass seed in 
 one area, thousands of lorikeets on honey-bearing 
 flowers in another, and innumerable scrub birds in 
 forests of different types having different kinds of 
 insects. 
 
 Climatic effect, as in map 96, B b 1 , will produce 
 colour tone, and if the particular birds are internal 
 migratores they will annually return to the area of 
 their birth. 
 
 Birds mostly come in from the direction of New 
 Guinea or come south from the Northern Territory, 
 map 96 K. The lines of immigration indicated in 
 H and F have been previously mentioned. 
 
 The great junction areas A A, B B, D D, are the 
 boundaries of the mass of species in Western Aus- 
 tralia. 
 
 At Nullabor Plain, D D, we have the meeting 
 ground* of birds from South Australia and birds 
 from Western Australia, both sections keeping 
 apart : the latest discovery among parrots being the 
 
 ^Address to the R.A.O.U. Perth Congress, 1920, R. Hall. 
 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA 
 
 215 
 
 Naretha Parrot of H.L. White, keeping to the west- 
 ern side of the plain. 
 
 B B is where the northern and southern birds 
 meet, and A A is where the real tropical birds 
 refuse to go beyond. The few dry-country species 
 of birds locate themselves at E. 
 
 UNUSUAL COMBINING OF AREAS 
 (Plate 3, Figs. 84, 90) 
 
 The country between the Gascoyne and Ashbur- 
 ton districts is a no-birds land. Most of the species 
 north of it do not go south, just as we find the 
 reverse. Migratory birds are excepted. 
 
 The Tit- Warblers (Acanthiza) and Scrub-Wrens 
 (Sericornis), embracing fifty species and races, are 
 with one or two exceptions, all southern. 
 
 A bird connecting these two genera by its plum- 
 age and habits is the Red Throat (Pyrrholaemus). 
 Strangely enough it is found in both areas, extend- 
 ing to New South Wales in the south, but not 
 extending in the north to Queensland. 
 
 As a set off against this theory of a south east 
 origin we have the Brown Flycatcher (Microeca 
 assimilis) distributed over the whole of Western 
 Australia as shown in map 97, and having a north- 
 east origin. These are coastal examples of birds 
 being common to the two coastal areas. 
 
 In the inland sub-region (Eyrean) 7 9 , 7 8 , map 1, 
 we have the Rufous Tree-creeper as a good 
 example of a species occupying the three areas 
 
216 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 N.W.A. 8, S.W.A. 9, and the desert west 7 8 , 7 
 (map 1). 
 
 Among the interesting birds of the area 8, we 
 have the only cuckoo in Australia which makes a 
 nest and hatches its eggs ; the Pheasant Cuckoo. 
 So that of the twelve species of this parasitical 
 family this one stands out for morality in relation 
 with its fellows. Having a measurement of close 
 on two feet it is a giant of its kind. 
 
 WIDE SPREAD GROUPS 
 (Plate 1, Fig. 9; Plate 3, Fig. 98) 
 
 At the point A in map 98 we meet with a great 
 climatic change, both sea and land birds re- 
 sponding. The extensive family of Terns, straight- 
 billed gulls, keeps mostly to the north, while the 
 equally strong family of Petrels keeps almost alto- 
 gether to the south. The Houtman Abrolhos, A, 
 is the nesting ground of both, and it is the most 
 southerly group of coral islands in the southern 
 hemisphere. Stray penguins will come from the 
 south on rare occasions. They perfer the Leeuwin 
 coast and islands east of it, which are about the 
 northern limit of range. The Recherche Islands 
 are good hatching grounds, after which the pen- 
 guins go to sea for months. They are nocturnal 
 as well as diurnal. 
 
 Terns lay their eggs in open places, Petrels 
 mostly in deep hollows of the ground, and Penguins 
 in open places amongst rocks or slightly in the 
 ground. 
 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA 217 
 
 The Cape Pigeon, which is a petrel, is beautifully 
 mottled and lays its eggs in open places on the 
 rocky cliffs. I have camped with them during a 
 blizzard on Kerguelen's Land. Occasionally it gets 
 as far north as King George's Sound but not to lay 
 eggs, as well as we know. The Snow Petrel, which 
 is one of its fellows, never leaves the Antarctic 
 Sea to nest. The smallest petrel (Wilsons) and the 
 Giant Petrel, annually spend the winter about our 
 shores. They are circumpolar. 
 
 Of the land group most widely distributed species 
 we have the Pipit and its races. It is a protectively 
 coloured species, being rufous on red areas, brown- 
 ish on brown, and greyish on grey. This is shown 
 in map 98, c, c 1 c 5 , and collections of birds will 
 define the colour of the country on which they live. 
 
 Mirafra, the Bush Lark, is just such another bird 
 distributed over Australia and varying with its 
 country. 
 
 THE SOUTH-WEST AREA 
 (Plate 2, Fig. 74; Plate 3, Fig. 99) 
 
 The south west area is divided into two portions. 
 There is the coastal plain, a narrow strip of country 
 west of the Darling and Stirling Ranges, and there 
 is the larger portion east of the ranges, with a 
 scarp dividing two vegetations; map 99. 
 
 To all small ground loving birds the range is a 
 barrier to distribution eastward. Having a feeble 
 flight they do not seem to care to leave the vegeta- 
 
218 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 tion of the lowland to cross a mountain range thinly 
 covered with low-growing plants. 
 
 All the coastal species in the text of map 99 are 
 found only in south-west Australia. The robin has 
 a small white frontal mark, originally pointed out 
 by the ornithologist, A. J. Campbell, while the 
 scarlet-breast of Eastern Australia has a large 
 white frontal mark. The Spine-bill of Eastern 
 Australia has no white brow, so that the develop- 
 ment of a white brow in Western Australia is 
 interesting. This is an example of what is con- 
 tinuously occurring amongst birds. 
 
 The Ultramontane birds mentioned above have 
 no barriers to migration eastward for thousands 
 of miles, with the result that they have a broad 
 distribution. The Darling Range divides the coun- 
 try into western moist and eastern dry. In the 
 latter we have the Red-capped Robin which puzzles 
 us greatly by taking on a partly red throat, often 
 skipping a generation or two. It lives in the jam 
 country (Eucalyptus) a loose inland forest, while 
 on the coastal side another robin frequents the 
 giant jarrah country (E. marginata). The Bronze- 
 wing pigeon is an instrument of distribution for 
 the seeds of the "jam trees," while the honey-eaters 
 which associate in the high foliage of the jarrah 
 and karri gums cross fertilise the trees. Many 
 other proofs of this means of dispersal occur in the 
 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA 219 
 
 different types of the coastal country. The latter 
 country is divided into : 
 
 1. Limestone hills with dwarf scrub. 
 
 2. Sandy moist land with red flowering gums, tea 
 
 tree, and grass trees. 
 
 3. Granite and ironstone ranges carrying the jarrah 
 
 trees. 
 
 Each class of country in the south-west area 
 bears its own species, and its own races of them, 
 adjacent. 
 
 THE BLACK COCKATOOS 
 
 The cockatoos that are black have recognition 
 marks of red, or white or yellow. The only one 
 with white keeps to south-west Australia, and the 
 one with yellow to south-east Australia. The bird 
 with red in its plumage, map 100, c, connects a and 
 b, and is found in Central Australia. The Tas- 
 manian bird is an insular race of d. The Great- 
 billed Cockatoo is found only in northern Australia, 
 from west to east. 
 
 The female appears to do most of the nesting, 
 while it is expected of the male that he will feed 
 her. She leaves the hollow tree in which are placed 
 the eggs, and settling on the branch welcomes her 
 mate. She is then fed, and immediately preens her 
 feathers. Ten minutes later she re-enters the nest, 
 tail first, and a few weeks later the young have to 
 climb upward, six feet, in many cases. There are 
 two young, and as one is born about a week later 
 than the other, it rarely is strong enough to do the 
 
220 AUSTRALIAN BIRD MAPS 
 
 climbing. That is, it dies before maturity, as the 
 grubs generally go to the strong. 
 
 The young of the White-tailed species may travel 
 with the parents as far north as the Ashburton 
 River, though it is more at home in the magnificent 
 forests of the south-west. 
 
 THE NORTH-WEST SEA LINE 
 (Plate 2, Fig. 45) 
 
 The north-west sea line is somewhat similar to 
 the north-east one, though not so rich in coral reefs, 
 or reef birds. There are those birds which keep to 
 the sand beaches, and many others common to the 
 mangrove estuaries. 
 
 The Reef Herons are endeared to the atolls. 
 Many land birds cross the narrow sea to the low 
 lying islands. Petrels of the south rarely come so 
 far north, excepting that fine bird the Black-billed 
 Albatross of Lord Rothschild. It is so rarely seen 
 that we wonder if it is not the rarest of all the tube- 
 nosed birds. The "mutton-bird" is a type of petrel 
 that is said to migrate to the Japanese seas using 
 both dark and sunlight. Their nesting is mostly 
 nocturnal, a necessary evolution because of day- 
 light enemies, as skua gulls. 
 
 The commonest of all our sea birds is the Noddy 
 Tern, found on the Houtman Rocks in nesting time, 
 and along the equatorial waters to New South 
 Wales. Elegant Tropic Birds, with attenuated red- 
 tail feathers, and great Frigate Birds lend charm 
 to the tropic seas of the north-west coastline. 
 
ERRATA 
 
 Map 46 Reverse f and g. 
 52 d equals "Stronghold." 
 74 To M. garrula add Tas- 
 
 manian race. 
 
 n 77 "South" not Southern. 
 91 Transpose Maps 91 and 97. 
 97 Transpose Maps 97 and 91. 
 
 Wholly Set up and Printed in 
 
 Tasmania by 
 
 The Monotone Art Printers 
 56-58 Liverpool Street, Hobart 
 
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