An Australian Bird Book Part 12

The Painted Snipe breeds in Australia, but the Australian Snipe breeds in j.a.pan, so it, properly speaking, is not an Australian bird. Think of the journey twice a year! Six of these wading-birds even visit New Zealand each year. How do they find their way there, across a gap of over 1000 miles, without any land whatever? Inherited memory is strong, but how did the first batches find their way? Their annual journey supports the geographer in his surmise that Australia at no very distant date extended very much farther to the east. Indeed, these birds almost certainly follow the old coast of the Australian continent.

Snipe, some Plovers, Dottrels, Curlews (Sea), Whimbrels, G.o.dwits, &c., thus go to the North each year to partake of the abundant banquet of fruits, &c., preserved in the great ice chamber of the North.

Numberless flocks of birds follow up the melting ice, and so nest unmolested on the great tundras and plains of Siberia. They wear their bright wedding dress in the far North, and are known here only in the quiet mottled browns and grays. In autumn these birds depart. They travel mostly at night, to avoid Birds of Prey, and so are seldom seen, though they may be heard calling as they pa.s.s high overhead.

They are occasionally seen with the aid of telescopes as they pa.s.s across the face of the moon.

The Pratincole, or Swallow-Plover, is a representative of an Old-World family. Its long wings and long legs denote a rapid runner and a rapid flyer, so that it has little trouble in catching its insect food, either in the air or on the ground.

Our inland Stone-Curlew has a call very similar to that of the sea (true) Curlew, but it has a short, straight bill, instead of a long, arched bill. The proper name of the land Curlew is the Southern Stone-Curlew or Stone-Plover. It is the only Australian bird that seems to have the power of varying the color of its eggs. If the eggs are laid in gra.s.s, they are greenish; if amongst ironstone, the eggs are reddish-brown; if on sand, the eggs are tawny; and so on. Other ground-laying birds seem to pick out the soil that matches the color of their eggs, and lay there only. Possibly local races of the Southern Stone-Curlew keep to the one cla.s.s of country. However, the eggs do match the surroundings, and the birds nest on different kinds of soil and rock.

In Family 42, the only Australian bird is the Australian Bustard, our representative of a widely-spread family, a member of which formerly bred in Great Britain. It is the well-known "Wild Turkey." As it is a good table bird, it is generally shot on sight. This is a mistake, as it is (as Mr. C. French, Government Entomologist, has pointed out) worth many times its table value as an insect destroyer. None of the family has spread to America. As no Bustard occurs in the regions between Australia and India, this bird supplies a good example of what is known to zoo-geographers as "discontinuous distribution."

"Discontinuous distribution," as applied to land animals, _e.g._, marsupials found in America and Australia, rat.i.te birds in South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, or the tapir, found in Central America and Malaysia, implies a land connexion (not necessarily complete at any one period) to allow of the gradual spread of the animals. Of course, as flying birds can pa.s.s easily from one region to another, "discontinuous distribution," as applied to them, cannot have so much importance attached to it as indicating previous land connexions.

[Page 42]

[Ill.u.s.tration: [76] [77] [78] [79] [80] [81] [82]]

ORDER X.--CHARADRIIFORMES.

F. 34. _Chionididae_, Sheathbills, Kelp-Pigeons, 3 sp.--2(2)E.

1(1)Nl.

F. 35. _Thinocorythidae_, Seed-Snipe, Seed-Plover, 5 sp. Nl.

F. 36. CHARADRIIDAE (44), Waders, Plover-like Birds, 202 sp.--68(29)A., 75(5)O., 84(2)P., 70(24)E., 65(3)Nc., 74(28)Nl.

1 2

=76 Turnstone=, Sea-Dottrel, Calico (beach) Bird, _Arenaria interpres_, cos.

[~76 _Morinella interpres._]

Mig. c. _sh.o.r.e_ 8

Winter plumage, mottled brown, black; summer plumage in far north; black and white conspicuous; short bill black; legs, feet, orange; f., duller. Sand-hoppers, sh.e.l.lfish.

[Page 43]

2 13

=77 Pied Oyster-catcher= (White-breasted, Black and white), Seapie, Olive, Redbill, Torea, _Haematopus longirostris_, Mol., N.G., A., T., N.Z., Chatham Is. =vt. Eur.

Oyster-catcher.

Stat. c. _sh.o.r.es_ 19.5

Black; abdomen, rump, base tail above, below white; eyes, bill, legs red; bill 3.75in.; f., sim. Sand-hoppers, sh.e.l.lfish, worms.

=78 Black Oyster-catcher= (Sooty), Redbill, Toreo-pango, _H.

fuliginosus_, A., T., N.Z.

Stat. c. _sh.o.r.es_ 18

Sooty-black; bill, feet, eye red; f., sim. Sh.e.l.lfish, worms.

1 1

=79 Red-kneed Dottrel=, Sandpiper (e), _Erythrogonys cinctus_, A.

Mig. r. _muddy river banks_ 7.5

Head, upper-neck, chest, black; throat, sides of neck, abdomen, under base tail white; back olive-brown; middle tail feathers olive, rest white; thigh, knee pink-red; f., sim.

Insects.

2 4

=80 Spurwing Plover= (Wattled), Alarm-Bird, _Lobivanellus lobatus_, A., T.

[~80 _Lobibyx novae hollandiae._]

Stat. c. _plains_, _swamps_ 14

"One of most beautiful of plovers;" crown black; face, hind-neck, rump, under white; upper brown; tail white tipped black; wattle on face lemon-yellow; spur on shoulder; f., sim.

Insects.

1 1

=81* Black-breasted Plover= (Stubble, Flock, Plain), _Zonifer tricolor_, A., T.

Stat. v.c. _plains_ 10.5

Upper brown; crown, line on face down to broad band on chest, wing-quills black; line through eye, throat, abdomen white; tail white barred black; spot at base of upper-bill blood-red; f., spot lighter-red. Insects.

1 1

=82 Gray Plover= (Black-bellied), Gray Sandpiper (e), Mayc.o.c.k, _Squatarola helvetica_, cos. 82 [~_Squatarola squatarola._]

Mig. r. _muddy sh.o.r.es_, _rivers_ 12

Crown, upper, wings, olive-brown mottled white; wing-quills blackish-brown; rump white; tail white barred light olive; face, under white, breast tinged buff; bill, feet blackish; small hind toe; brighter in far North; f., sim. Insects, worms.

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[Ill.u.s.tration: [83] [84] [85] [86] [87]]

1 2

=83 Lesser Golden Plover= (Pacific, American, Australian, Eastern), _Charadrius dominicus_, almost cos.

[~83-89 _Genus Charadrius._]

Mig. flocks, r. _plains near sea_, _rivers_ 9