Page:The Emu volume 4.djvu/20

 quandongs. On another occasion I was in a similar perplexity as regarded certain "jam" or acacia trees which were growing up the clear gorge where we were camped, and which was the only place in summer where fresh water was obtainable. These trees were the only ones in the Hills, and as a fact the locality was not what is known in Western Australia as "jam" country, trees of that species being found on a widely different location. There seemed no solution of the problem until I heard the trumpet-coo of a Bronze-wing near our tents. The reason for the presence of the jam trees at once became apparent. The Bronze-wing was the distributing agency. The seeds of this acacia form the staple food of the birds. Doubtless some of these birds, having visited the trees in the proper "jam" areas and fed largely upon the seeds, had flown to and quenched their thirst at the spring in the gorge, and then stayed for the night in the locality. The undigested seeds would be deposited, and grow in due season. By these means birds unconsciously provide for certain future seasonal food supplies, and at the same time add certain vegetable forms to a particular district where such forms are not present, and also perpetuate the same forms in districts where they are present, but where the growth of young trees in the shelter of parent trees would tend to the exhaustion and ultimate extermination of both. We meet the same distributing agents in the Mistletoe-Birds (Dicæum hirundinaceum) who in a like manner carry and deposit the glutinous-covered seed of the mistletoe from tree to tree and from district to district.

.—Appended is a list of birds taken or observed during the trip:—

(Wedge-tailed Eagle).—Saw one pair only.

(Striped Brown Hawk).—Not common. Shot a fledgling.

(Kestrel).—Not common.

(Boobook Owl).—Heard at night near camp.

(Raven).—Numerous. Nest with young near camp.

(Leaden Crow-Shrike).—Not common.

. (Magpie-Lark).—Not numerous. Only seen near settlements.

(Buff-bellied Shrike-Thrush).—Fairly common.

(Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike).—Not numerous.

(White-shouldered Caterpillar-eater).—Very numerous everywhere.

(Lesser Brown Flycatcher).—Fairly numerous everywhere along route.

.—See article.

(Red-capped Robin).—Not numerous. See article. Shot one with red throat.