Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/287

Rh At the end of September, when visiting my inland run, there were great flocks of Straw-necked Ibis (Geronticus spinicollis) about the pools and adjoining flats. When there again on Nov. 3rd, my man in charge of stock told me that about the middle of October he had sent two boys with the bullock-cart eight miles down the creek to bring back a large iron tank swept away by the floods. They returned with quantities of Ibis's eggs, and said they had eaten a great many, and more were left; "can't finish 'um." As a colony of these birds is a rare sight—in fact, I do not know if there is any record of their breeding in West Australia—I drove down, but found most of the young birds had fledged, and only a few addled eggs were left in the nests. Of these I secured about a score. The nests were in hundreds, mostly built on low bushes flattened down by the flood, about three feet from the ground. Some of the bushes contained a cluster of six or eight nests, all interbuilt; they were of flat form, lined with white gum-leaves. A few nests were built on the ground. The colony must have been a most interesting sight when all the birds were there. A few full-grown young were about which could not fly. The native with me caught several, and of course started killing them all. However, I was in time to save one, and brought it back to the camp, where in a few hours it seemed quite content; but, as it was liable to stray too far away in pursuit of its favourite grasshoppers, we tethered one leg by a string, and fed it out of a damper-dish in which pieces of bread and meat were dropped. The bird would stand inside, and feel about for the lumps, holding its beak mostly in a horizontal position, at times almost reversing its head. After a meal it would attack, with a sharp scream, some of the fowls or young Cockatoos as far as its tether would permit; its long reach of bill giving it all the advantage. It is now at the house, with full liberty. It feeds readily from the hand, and will attack the Dogs and Cats if they venture too close. Two specimens of the rare Painted Finch (Emblema picta) were obtained here, and others seen; they had doubtless bred in the neighbourhood.

To our surprise, this year the large pools at my inland run on the Cardabia Creek contained numbers of small fish from four to six inches in length, and I hear they also occur in the Lyndon