The Confessions of a Beachcomber Part 7

Little Quail TURNIX VELOX.

RAIL

Pectoral Rail HYPOTAENIDIA PHILIPPINENSIS.

CRANE

Crane or Native Companion ANTIGONE AUSTRALASIANA.

PLOVERS, ETC.

Stone Plover BURHINUS (OEDICNEMUS) GRALLARIUS.

Long-billed Stone Plover ORTHORHAMPHUS (ESACUS) MAGNIROSTRIS.

Turnstone ARENARIA (STREPSILAS) INTERPRES.

Pied Oyster-catcher HAEMATOPUS LONGIROSTRIS.

Black Oyster-catcher HAEMATOPUS UNICOLOR.

Masked Plover LOBIVANELLUS MILES.

Red-capped Dottrel AEGIALITIS RUFICAPILLA.

Black-fronted Dottrel AEGIALITIS (MELANOPS) NIGRIFRONS.

Red-necked Avocet RECURVIROSTRA NOVAE-HOLLANDIAE.

Curlew NUMENIUS CYANOPUS.

Whimbrel NUMENIUS VARIEGATUS.

Barred-rumped G.o.dwit LIMOSA NOVAE-SEALANDIAE Common Sandpiper TRINGOIDES HYPOLEUCUS.

Greenshank GLOTTIS NEBULARIUS (GLOTTOIDES).

Snipe GALLINAGO AUSTRALIS.

SEA BIRDS

Crested Tern STERNA BERGII.

Brown-winged Tern STERNA ANAESTHETA.

Sooty Tern STERNA FULIGINOSA.

White-shafted Ternlet STERNA SINENSIS.

Black-naped Tern STERNA MELANAUCHEN.

Noddy ANOUS STOLIDUS.

White-capped Noddy MICRANOUS LEUCOCAPILLUS.

IBISES

White Ibis IBIS MOLUCCA.

Straw-necked Ibis CARPHIBIS SPINICOLLIS.

HERONS

Plumed Egret MESOPHOYX PLUMIFERA.

White Egret HERODIAS TIMORIENSIS.

White-fronted Heron NOTOPHOYX NOVAE-HOLLANDIAE.

Reef Heron DEMIEGRETTA SACRA.

Little Mangrove Bittem BUTORIDES STAGNATILIS.

Yellow-necked Mangrove Bittem DUPETOR GOULDI.

POUCHERS

Little Cormorant PHALACROCORAX MELANOLEUCUS.

Darter PTOLUS NOVAE-HOLLANDIAE.

Masked Gannet SULA CYANOPS.

Red-legged Gannet SULA PISCATOR.

Brown Gannet (b.o.o.by) SULA SULA (FIBER).

Lesser Frigate Bird FREGATA ARIEL Pelican PELICa.n.u.s CONSPICILLATUS.

DIVER

Black-throated Grebe PODICIPES NOVAE-HOLLANDIAE.

DUCKS

Black Duck ANAS SUPERCILIOSA.

Grey Teal NETTION (ANAS) GIBBERIFRONS.

Why have we no residential parrot, though c.o.c.katoos are plentiful; no scrub turkey though the megapode scampers in all directions in the jungle; no common black crow, nor butcher bird, though other shrikes (the magpie for instance) come and go; no wren, no finch, no lark? Scrub turkeys (TALLEGALLA LATHAMI), mound builders like the megapode, are plentiful all along the coast, at certain seasons visiting the scrub which margins the opposite beach, but they are not found on these islands. The blue mountain parrot (red-collared lorikeet), the red-winged lory, the black c.o.c.katoo (Leach's), and other well-known species, fleet and venturesome, to whom two miles and a half of "salt, estranging sea"

cannot be any check, certainly do not use the island for nesting as birds of "innocent and quiet minds" might. Gauze-winged b.u.t.terflies flit across the channel, occasionally in great numbers. What law restrains virile birds from the venture?

The absence among the residents of swimming birds, save the beach frequenters, is due to the lack of open fresh water, though there are indications of the past existence of at least one swamp, and also that it was drained naturally by the fretting away of a sand ridge by the sea.

How is it, that though we have echidna in three different colours--black, grey and straw--there is no typical marsupial, large or small, no iguana (rather, monitor lizard), though a fair variety of other reptiles, from white, house-haunting geckoes to carpet snakes? Though the CYCAS MEDIA is plentiful on the seaward slopes of the adjacent mainland, no trace of that interesting old-world plant has been discovered here. and but one casual representative has been found of the graceful fan palm (LICUALA MUELLERI), another relic of the far beginning of Australia. No doubt the seed whence the single fan palm sprung would be brought hither by a nutmeg pigeon; but there is no bird-carrier for the CYCAD, and the set of the current is opposed to its transport by the sea.

In birds and in mammals and in plants, wide-spread Australian groups are unrepresented.

THE DAYBREAK FUGUE

Before there is any visible sign of the break of day, some keener and finer perception than man possesses reveals it to the noisy pitta, or dragoon bird, which in duty bound makes prompt proclamation. Man trusts to mechanism to check off the watches of the night; birds to a self-contained grace more sensitive if not so viciously exact. The noisy pitta bustles along the edge of the jungle rousing all the sleepy heads with sharp interrogative whistles before there is the least paling of the Eastern sky. He scents the sun as the ghost of Hamlet's father the morning air. His version of "Sleepers, wake," echoes in the silence in sharp, staccato notes. Seldom heard during the heat of the day, they are oft repeated at dusk and late in the evening. Of all the birds of the day his voice is the last as well as the first, and from that the natives derive his name, "Wung-go-bah."

As the dawn hastens a subdued fugue of chirps and whistles, soft, continuous and quite distinct from the cheerful individual notes and calls with which the glare is greeted, completes a circle of sounds.

Wheresoever he stands the listener is in the centre of ripples of melody which blend with the silence almost as speedily as the half lights flee before the pompous rays of the imperial sun. This charming melody is but a general exclamation of pleasure on the recovery of the day from the apprehension of the night, a mutual recognition, an interchange of matutinal compliments. Those who take part in it may be jealous rivals in a few minutes, but the first impulse of each new day is a universal paean, not loud and vaunting, but mellow, sweet and unselfish.

THE MEGAPODE

The cackle and call of the scrub fowl (MEGAPODIUS DUPERREYS) are nocturnal as well as sounds of the day, being repeated at intervals all through the night. Rarely venturing out of the shades of the jungle, the eyesight of this bird is, no doubt, specially adjusted to darkness and subdued lights, and is thus enabled to detect and prey upon insects which during the day lurk under leaves and decayed wood, or bury themselves in the surface of the ever moist soil. Astonishment is excited that there can by any possibility be any grubs or beetles, centipedes and worms, scorpions and spiders left to perpetuate their species, when the floor of the jungle is raked over with such a.s.siduity by this powerful and active bird. During the day the megapode is sometimes silent, but ever and anon it gives way to what may in charity be presumed to be a crow---an uncouth, discordant effort to imitate the boastful, tuneful challenge of the civilised rooster. In common with "Elia" (and others) the megapode has no ear for music. It seems to have been practising "c.o.c.k-a-doodle-doo" all its life in the solitary corners and undergrowth, and to have not yet arrived within quavers of it. It "abhors the measured malice of music."

The inclusion among the birds of the air of such an inveterate land lover, a bird which seldom takes flight of its own motive, is permissible on general principles, while its practical exercise of rare domestic economy ent.i.tles it to special and complimentary notice. Reference is made elsewhere to the surpa.s.sing intelligence of the megapode in taking advantage of the heat caused by the fermentation of decaying vegetation to hatch out huge eggs. Long before the astute Chinese practised the artificial incubation of hens' and ducks' eggs, these sage birds of ours had mastered it. Several birds seem to co-operate in the building of a mound, which may contain many cartloads of material, but each bird appears to have a particular area in which to deposit her eggs. The chicks apparently earn their own living immediately they emerge fully fledged from the mound, and are so far independent of maternal care that they are sometimes found long distances from the nearest possible birthplace, scratching away vigorously and flying when frightened with remarkable vigour and speed, though but a few hours old. I come gladly to the conclusion that the megapode is a sagacious bird, not only in the avoidance of the dismal duty of incubation, but in respect of the making of those great mounds of decaying vegetable matter and earth which perform the function so effectively. In a particularly rugged part of the island is a mound almost completely walled in by immense boulders. In such a situation the birds could hardly have found it possible to acc.u.mulate by kicking and scratching so great a quant.i.ty of debris. The material was not available on the site, and as the makers do not carry their rubbish, it was puzzling to account for it all, until it was noticed that the junction of two boulders with an inclination towards each other formed a natural flume or shoot down which most of the material of the mound had been sent. As the rains and use flatten the apex fresh stuff is deposited with a trifling amount of labour, to afford an ill.u.s.tration of "purposive conscious action."

The megapode seems to delight in flying in the face of laws to which ordinary fowls are obedient. While making a law unto herself for the incubation of eggs, she scandalously violates that which provides that the size of the egg shall be in proportion to the size of the bird.

Though much less in weight than an average domestic fowl, the egg that she lays equals nearly three of the fowl's. Comparisons between the egg of the ca.s.sowary (one of the giants among birds) and of the common fowl with that of the megapode, are highly complimentary to the latter. A fair weight for a full-grown ca.s.sowary is 150 lb., and the egg weighs 1 lb. 6 oz. A good-conditioned megapode weighs 3 lb., the egg 5 1/4 oz.; ordinary domestic fowl, 4 lb., egg 2 oz. The egg of the ca.s.sowary represents 1 per cent. of the weight of the bird, the domestic fowl's 3 1/8 per cent., and that of megapode no less than 11 1/2 per cent of its weight.

When these facts are considered, we realise why the homey head of the great ca.s.sowary, the layer of the largest of Australian eggs, is carried so low as she bursts through the jungle; why the pair converse in such humble tones and why, on the other hand, the megapode exults so loudly so coa.r.s.ely and in such shocking intervals, careless of the sentiments and of the sense of melody of every other bird.

Though the powers of the flight of this bird are feeble it inhabits islands 3 and 4 miles further out to sea than their most adjacent neighbours. The laboured way in which a startled bird flies across the narrow expanse of my plantation proves that a long journey would never be undertaken voluntarily. Not many months ago some blacks walking on the beach on the mainland had their attention attracted by a bird flying low on the water from the direction of Dunk Island, 2 1/2 miles away. It was labouring heavily, and some little distance from land fell exhausted into the sea. When it drifted ash.o.r.e--a G.o.dsend to the boys--it was found to be a megapode--and the feat was camp talk. None could credit that a "kee-rowan" could fly so far.

SWAMP PHEASANT