. Nests and eggs of birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania . they feed. They are almost omnivorous, but their natural food consistsprincipally of small fish and marine animals, and are notorious nest plunderers, eating the eggsof other sea-birds. They pick up scraps of food thrown overboard from vessels, meat, fattysubstances, etc. One may observe this at Circular Quay, Sydney, in the vicinity of the largeocean-going vessels. In ] )ecember, 1907, these birds followed the steamer, or we were visited atintervals during a passage from Sydney to Hobart, and again while returning across Bas
. Nests and eggs of birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania . they feed. They are almost omnivorous, but their natural food consistsprincipally of small fish and marine animals, and are notorious nest plunderers, eating the eggsof other sea-birds. They pick up scraps of food thrown overboard from vessels, meat, fattysubstances, etc. One may observe this at Circular Quay, Sydney, in the vicinity of the largeocean-going vessels. In ] )ecember, 1907, these birds followed the steamer, or we were visited atintervals during a passage from Sydney to Hobart, and again while returning across Bass Straitfrom Launceston to Melbourne. In Octolier, igio, while on my way to Lord Howe Island,it was only seen on the same afternoon as the steamer left Sydney. About gardens it isin great request for ridding them of snails, slugs, worms and insects and their larvjp. Mostlythese birds are cruelly pinioned, doomed never to fly again, others more fortunate have one wingcut, so that all hope is not lost, while a few, a very few, are perfect and unmutilated in any FLIfiliT OF SILVER fiULLS, FiOSE HAY, PORT JACKSON. One of the latter, kept for a long while by Mr. John Black, of Chatswood, in his garden, wouldat times take flight around the neighbourhood, returning again later on. The last of manytimes I observed it on its aerial journey, was on the 2nd January, igii. A few weeks after informed me that the bird had llown away and never returned. For the photograph fromwhich the accompanying figure has been reproduced, I am indebted to Mr. J. Benton, who tookit from a steamer, while passing Rose Bay. The late Mr. K. II. Bennett wrote as follows from Mossgiel, South-western New SouthWales, in 1886 :— Lams mvcB-hollandia is occasionally met with this far inland in good seasons,when the swamps are full of water. It gives preference to open sheets of water, and is rarely,if ever, seen on swamps overgrown with Polygonum or other vegetation. I have never known ofan instance
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Keywords: ., bookauthornorthalf, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1901
