Some useful Australian birds

with very drastic punishments to be meted out to the man who transgressed, it is only within quite modern times that such a thing as protecting birds and animals has been considered in any other manner.The first acts to come into force have always been game laws not to protect the birds for their beauty or use to the community, but to enable them to breed and increase in order to furnish sport to hunters.Later on, game laws were modified on a more honest plan to protect the animals and birds with a " close season," so that they could breed without being molested, their cash value as game having been recognised.Next came the practical observer, who pointed out that the birds that fed upon insects that destroyed plants, pasturage, and crops must also have a cash value to the man who made his living on the land.Then we had the first bird protection acts for the preservation of insecti- vorous birds.Bird Protection in Australia.It was a very long time, however, before the many Australian Game Acts were framed to include anything but game birds, which were protected by a close season during the time they were nesting.The value or beauty of insectivorous or harmless birds was not considered; the acts were simply game acts.One of the forerunners of legal protection for harmless and useful birds was the publication by the Department of Education in Victoria of a " Chart of the Insectivorous Birds of Victoria."This gave coloured representations of a number of the best known useful birds, and was hung in all the country schools about thirty years ago.In his " Report upon Insect and Fungus Pests in Queensland," in 1889, Tryon published some interestiog notes on the value of insectivorous birds, and gave a list of those found in the Toowoomba district.Later, French added plates and popular descriptions of insectivorous birds to his "Handbook of the Injurious Insects of Victoria."In the Victorian Bird Protection Act of 1890, in addition to the close season for game birds, fifty groups of insectivorous birds were scheduled, including a number of introduced species that were to be protected all the year round.Some of these introduced species are now looked upon as pests.Since then, all the Australian States have made additions to their old acts, or brought out more modern ones, and sanctuaries have been created in lakes, swamps, estuaries, and forest areas.Many private landowners are now pro- tecting the wild life on their estates.In 1901, the New South Wales Bird Protection Act came into force.This included a list of 105 species of insec- tivorous birds, absolutely protected from the 3 1st of October, 1905, until the same date of 1915.In a proclamation issued early in 1907 other birds were added to this list, and twelve groups of introduced game and song birds were also included.The Bird and Animals Protection Act of 1918, now in force, is very much in advance of all the previous acts ; as, unencumbered with long lists of the scientific names of the protected birds and animals, it simply gives a list of SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS.those that are not protected in the first and second schedules.Therefore all the birds and animals not black-listed are given complete or partial protection, with a close season while breeding.Included in the Act is a description of all the sanctuaries (where no one is allowed to shoot any kind of bird or animal) in the State.