Part 4

"The Honey-eaters heard; the Fuscous--yea, The Warty-faced, the Lunulated, too; But this kind feathered tribe will never say What words you said to me, or I to you.

"The golden bloom was glorious in the furze, And gentle twittering came from out the copses; It was the Carinated Flycatchers, Or else the black Monarcha melanopsis.

"That day our troth we plighted--blissful hour, Beginning of a joy a whole life long! And while the wide world seemed to be in flower, The Chestnut-rumped Ground-Wren burst forth in song."

It surely would not be amiss if the Bird Observers' Clubs throughout Australia, and the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union, enlisted the aid of the State Education Departments, and endeavored to find out what names the children use for the birds of their district. Executive committees upon bird names are good; but a good name is not evoked by arguments in committee. It ofttimes comes from the happy inspiration of some child who loves the bird. At present the names given by classifiers are often an offence. A few evenings ago I was charmed with an unaccustomed song coming from out a big pittosporum tree in my garden at Kew. I took careful note of the little warbler, and then consulted Mr. Leach's Descriptive List. Judge of my satisfaction when I found that my little friend was "The Striated Field Wren or Stink Bird"!

The Australian boy is responding splendidly to the Nature-study movement. Bird observers tell me that shy native birds, formerly unknown near the haunts of men, are making their appearance, feeling safer now from molestation. Nest hunting for the sake of egg spoliation is happily becoming rarer, although children are developing keener eyes for nests. To-day every country school has its nests under loving observation for the purposes of bird-study and of bird-protection. Walt Whitman might have been describing many a Victorian school boy when he wrote--

"And every day the he-bird, to and fro, near at hand, And every day the she-bird, crouched on her nest, silent, with bright eyes, And every day, I, a curious boy, never too close, never disturbing them, Cautiously peering, absorbing, translating."

This loving study must bear good fruit. If we believe the scientific men, Australia is, par excellence, the land of birds, song-birds, plumage-birds, and birds of wonderful interest, such as the Satin Bower Bird. The collection of Australian birds in our National Museum at Melbourne is certainly one of the finest sights of the city, and it should be studied by all who wish to know how favored this continent is in bird distribution. But we must get to know and to love our feathered friends. Mr. Leach in his lecture has dwelt sufficiently on the economic and scientific value of bird-study. Let me enter a plea for bird-study as a source of æsthetic pleasure. Before our Australian birds can be to us what the Thrush and the Blackbird and the Linnet and the Lark and the Nightingale are to the British boy, we must have a wealth of association around them from song and story. And this association must grow up with us from childhood if it is to make the strongest appeal to us. It can rarely be acquired in later life. British birds owe much to the poets for the charm that surrounds them. When I heard the Nightingale in England, although I had no association with it gathered from my boyhood's days, I heard more than the bird's song. I was listening to Keats and Wordsworth and Shakespeare as well. There is something very fine in the thought that such bird songs go on for ever, that these immortal birds are "not made for death," that

"The voice I hear this passing night was heard In ancient days by emperor and clown: Perhaps the self-same song that found a path Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, She stood in tears amid the alien corn."

The Nightingale's song, as a bird song, I thought disappointing. I remember having the same feeling with regard to the Thrush and Blackbird. The charm of their songs is largely in the associations they evoke. Our city children are now growing up in familiarity with these two birds, which are becoming as common in our gardens as in England. And wherever they go they carry so much that is fine in literature with them. But there has not yet been time for our native birds to endear themselves to us. And so we hear only their song. Wise Shakespeare says--

"How many things by season seasoned are To their right praise and true perfection."

* * * * * * *

"The Nightingale, if she should sing by day, When every goose is cackling, would be thought No better a musician than the Wren."

He knows that to the song of the bird must be its appropriate setting, and that when Nature has done her part there is still much to be supplied by ourselves.

The outlook is, however, a hopeful one. Nature-study is bringing our boys and girls into kindlier relationships with our birds; suitable popular names will be forthcoming for them; our poets will sing of them; our nursery rhymes and our children's tales will tell of them; and the time will come when even the birds now trying so hard to sing their way into our hearts, while cursed with the names of "Rufous-breasted Thickhead" and "Striated Field Wren or Stink Bird," will mean to an Australian what "the Throstle with his note so true" and "the Wren with little quill" do to an Englishman.

Mr. Leach's valuable little book is a powerful contribution to this much-to-be-desired result.

FRANK TATE.

NAMES RECENTLY AMENDED

By Gregory Mathews.

The following were not included in the text.

The numbers 70, 74, and so on refer to the numbers of the birds.

20 Rallus pectoralis. 65-66 Genus Thalasseus. 70 Sterna fuscata. 74 Catharacta. 75 Catharacta parasitica. 76 Morinella interpres. 80 Lobibyx novae hollandiae. 82 Squatarola squatarola. 83-89 Genus Charadrius. 90 Hypsibates 95 Numenius minutus. 96 Limosa baueri. 97 Limosa melanuroides. 98 Tringa hypoleuca. 99 Tringa nebularia. 100 Arenaria leucophaea. 101 Erolia ruficollis. 102 Erolia aurita. 103 Erolia ferruginea. 104 Canutus canutus. 105 Canutus magnus. 110 Choriotis australis. 111 Mathewsia rubicunda. 114 Egatheus falcinellus. 117 Egretta plumifera. 118 Egretta timoriensis. 121 Egretta nigripes. 122 Demigretta sacra. 124 Ixobrychus pusillus. 126 Chenopis atrata. 132 Tadorna tadornoides. 134 Nettion castaneum. 139 Nyroca australis. 140 Oxyura australis. 142-146 Genus, Carbo. 157 Astur cirrhocephalus. 171 Ieracidea berigora. 172 Ieracidea orientalis. 179-183 Genus, Tyto. 185-187 Genus, Glossopsitta. 191 Genus, Callocephalon. 192-194 Genus, Cacatöes. 195 Licmetis tenuirostris. 196 Calopsitta novae-hollandiae. 198 Polytelis anthopeplus. 208 Neophema chrysostoma. 213 Lathamus discolor. 225 Eurostopodus albigularis. 228 Apus pacificus. 229 Cuculus pallidus. 232 Misocalius palliolatus.

PREFACE.

This little volume is intended as a pocket book for field use, so that the many teachers, nature-students, nature-lovers, schoolboys, schoolgirls, and boy scouts, who like to "see what they look at," may be able to name the birds they meet.

The first step towards knowing the birds is a desire to know them; this will grow if a person is interested; so our first business, as in all nature-study work, is to arouse interest. Interest follows at once, as we have often found, if a person realizes that what is about him or her is worthy of study.

To arouse this necessary interest, a lecture on Australian birds is given in such a form that it may be repeated, if desired.

The second requisite is a handy descriptive list of the birds that are likely to be seen. This has been written in simple language, so that the schoolboy and non-expert can use it.

Thus, our aims are two:--

1. To show that Australian birds are of interest.