Page:The Emu volume 2.djvu/238

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208
A. G. Campbell, The Birds of King Island.
[ Emu 1st April

Meliornis novæ-hollandiæ (White-bearded Honey-eater).—Few in number, but more easily found among cultivated flowers than among the native.


Acanthochæra inauris (Yellow Wattle-Bird).— One pair noted feeding on a flowering blue gum tree.


Pardalotus affinis (Yellow-tipped Pardalote).—Common only where gum trees exist.


Pardalotus quadragintus (Forty-spotted Pardalote).


Hirundo neoxena (Swallow).—Common.


Petrochelidon nigricans (Tree Martin).—Found among the gum trees.


Anthus australis (Ground-Lark).—Common in the pastures.


Artamus sordidus (Wood-Swallow).—A few pairs arc found in the timber.


Halcyon sanctus (Sacred Kingfisher).


Cuculus pallidus (Pallid Cuckoo).—Occasionally heard.


Cacomantis flabelliformis (Fan-tailed Cuckoo).—Occasionally heard.


*Chalcococcyx basalis (Narrow-billed Cuckoo).—One specimen shot.


Chalcococcyx plagosus (Bronze Cuckoo). It is noticed that the female Cuckoos are silent and very shy, while the males of the smaller species whistle, during the nesting season, at all times of the day, sometimes rivalling one another from adjacent tree tops.


Calyptorhynchus funereus, var. xanthonotus (Black Cockatoo).


Callocephalon galeatum (Gang-Gang Cockatoo).


Cacatua galerita (White Cockatoo).


Platycercus flaviventris (Green Parrakeet).—This species is one of the few of this genus having the immature plumage differing from the adult. The adult Green Parrakeet of King Island is very large, measuring 15½ inches in length. The back is black, with indigo-green edgings to the feathers; the under surface greenish-yellow, with under tail coverts washed with crimson. The young birds, probably until three years of age, are a uniform smudgy olive-green, excepting the blue on primaries and cheeks and the crimson on forehead, which, however, are not so bright as in the adult. November is the nesting season.


Neophema venusta (Blue-winged Grass-Parrakeet).


Phaps elegans (Brush Bronze-wing).—A few are found in scrubby areas.


Turnix varia (Painted Quail).—May be flushed in short scrub.


Hypotænidia brachypus (Slate-breasted Rail).


*Porphyrio melanonotus (Bald-Coot).—Seen running about on weedy marshes.


*Fulica australis (Coot).—In flocks on the larger lagoons.


Hæmatopus longirostris (Pied Oyster-catcher).—This species is found on the sandy beaches nesting among loose seaweed. Large young ones were seen early in November.


Hæmatopus unicolor (Black Oyster-catcher).—This larger species is not so common, and lives mostly among the rocky parts of the coast. At one place, an old resident affirms, a pair of these birds has lived and reared young each season for 25 years at least.