BIRDS OF NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, 12 January 1921, Page 7

BIRDS OF NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

HOW THEY ARE CAUGHT By the Mataram recently there arrived 18,000 Australian passengers from the Northern Territory (says the Sydney Sun). They came in cages—they were birds from the. Territory, finches and parrots. And judging by their alertness and the state of their plumage they had enjoyed the voyage. Every year the bird-catchers, penetrate far into the Territory, where there are finches of every variety by the million. The paints ed finches are delightful little things, with the brilliant colours put on them as by an artist’s hand. They twitter, but are not song birds. It is their quaint and gorgeous costumes that make them such favourites for the home cage. The bird-catchers depend on the dry weather, for the bait is chiefly water. The birds are caught in a net. This is in two sections, with the inner edge pegged to the ground, and in the space between are placed tins of water and eome seeds. In the early morning or late evening the bird-catcher is concealed under bushes, with his hand on a rope. As soon as th© thirsty birds fly down—as they do ■in clouds—on the space between the nets, a tug of the ropes pulls the nets over and closes them above the birds. Sometimes, as many as 70 dozen finches are got in one haul. The. net, when, closed, is 15ft. by lOft. And on a good day 100 dozen can be caught. It means travelling far into the

SB t interior; for within IQD miles of Darwin there is usually enouga water for the birds, and so soon as rain comes the bird-catcher has to pack up and come back to civilisation.

The great number of birds brought down to Sydney by the Mataram, according to the catchers, make little difference in the of birds in the Territory, j “It's like trying to bail out the sea with a bucket,” they say. there are vast areas in the interior where birds will never be interfered with, since these stretches are composed of rocky country, where a man could not get a horse to go. For 800 miles inland they swarm, and from Queensland right across to the north-west coast-line. “The hawks do more harm than the catchers,” they say; and they ae-, sert that the green parrots are a pest, as they destroy the settlers’ crops. When the grass is burnt off many of these birds are destroyed.

The owners of these birds were not allowed to land any *in Queensland, on the ground that these finches and green and black parrots are found in that State. The collectors are bringing the lot to Sydney, where they assert the whole 1500 dozen will be quickly disposed of as cage birds.