_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
EURYSTOMUS AUSTRALIS, _Swains_.
Australian Roller.
_Eurystomus orientalis_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p.
202.
_Eurystomus Australis_, Swains. Anim. in Menag., p. 326.—Ib. Class. of
Birds, vol. ii. p. 333.
_Coracias pacifica_, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xxvii?
_Pacific Roller_, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 371?
_Natay-kin_, Aborigines of New South Wales.
_Dollar Bird_ of the Colonists.
By the older writers this species was considered to be identical with
the _Eurystomus orientalis_, and the merit of first pointing out its
distinguishing characters is due to Mr. Swainson, who observes that it
is “smaller than _E. orientalis_; has the bill less compressed, and
therefore much broader; the colours lighter, but the wings much bluer;
the spurious wings entirely vivid blue, as well as the outer webs of the
quills; while in _orientalis_ these parts are almost black.”
It is a very local species, as I have never seen it from or met with it
in any other part of Australia excepting in New South Wales, and even
there it is migratory, arriving early in the spring; having brought
forth its progeny, it retires northwards on the approach of winter. From
what I saw of it,—and I had opportunities of observing it almost daily
for some length of time,—it seemed to be most active about sun-rise and
sunset, and during cloudy days; in sultry weather it was generally
perched upon some dead branch in a state of quietude. It is a very bold
bird at all times, but particularly so during the breeding-season, when
it comes down with the utmost fury upon any intruder that may venture to
approach the hole in the tree in which its eggs are deposited.
When engaged in the capture of insects it usually perches upon the dead
upright branch of a tree growing beside and overhanging water, where it
sits very erect, soaring all around until a passing insect attracts its
notice, when it suddenly darts off, secures its victim, and returns to
the same branch; at other times it may constantly be seen on the wing,
mostly in pairs, flying just above the tops of the trees, diving and
rising again with rapid turns in the most beautiful manner. During
flight, which, when performed at a considerable elevation, is heavy and
laboured, the white spot in the centre of each wing, then widely
expanded, shows very distinctly, and hence the name of Dollar Bird
bestowed upon it by the colonists.
It is a very noisy bird, particularly in dull weather, when it often
emits its peculiar chattering note during flight.
It is said to take the young Parrots from their holes and kill them, but
this I never witnessed; the stomachs of the many I dissected contained
nothing but the remains of coleoptera.
The breeding-season lasts from September to December; and the eggs,
which are three and sometimes four in number, are deposited in the hole
of a tree without any nest; they are of a beautiful pearly white,
considerably pointed at the smaller end; their medium length is one inch
and five lines, and breadth one inch and two lines.
The sexes are alike in plumage.
Head and neck dark brown, passing into the sea-green of the upper
surface, and deepening into black on the lores; spurious wing, outer
webs of the basal half of the quills, outer webs of the secondaries and
the basal half of the outer webs of the tail-feathers vivid blue; six of
the primaries with a greenish white basal band; extremities of the
primaries black; tail green at the base, black at the tip; throat vivid
blue, with a stripe of lighter blue down the centre of each feather;
under surface of the shoulder and abdomen light green; under surface of
the inner webs of the primaries, and of all but the two centre
tail-feathers deep blue, the former interrupted by the greenish white
band; irides dark brown; eyelash, bill and feet red; inside of the mouth
yellow.
The figures are of the natural size.
[Illustration:
DACELO GIGANTEA: _Leach_.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
DACELO GIGANTEA, _Leach_.
Great Brown Kingfisher.
_Alcedo gigantea_, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 245.
—— _fusca_, Gmel. edit. of Linn. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 454.
_Grand Martin-pêcheur de la Nouvelle Guinée_, Son. Voy., p. 171. pl.
106.—Buff. Hist. des Ois., tom. vii. p. 181.—Pl. Enl. 663.?
_Martin Chasseur_, Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd edit. p. lxxxviii.
_Giant Kingfisher_, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 53.
_Great Brown Kingfisher_, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. ii. p. 609.—Ibid.
Supp., vol. ii. p. 143.—White’s Journ., pl. in p.
137.—Phill. Voy., pl. in p. 287.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iv.
p. 9.
_Dacelo gigantea_, Leach, Zool. Misc., vol. ii. p. 126. pl. cvi.—Vig.
and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 204.—Swains. Class.
of Birds, vol. ii. p. 335.
_Choucalcyon australe_, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 248.
_Paralcyon gigas_, Gloger.
_Alcedo gigas_, Bodd.
_Dacelo gigas_, G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, 2nd edit. p. 14.
_Gogo-bera_, Aborigines of New South Wales.
_Laughing Jackass_ of the Colonists.
The _Dacelo gigantea_ is a bird with which every resident and traveller
in New South Wales is more or less familiar, for independently of its
large size, which in itself would tend to attract attention, its voice
is so extraordinary as to be unlike that of any other living creature.
In its disposition it is by no means shy, and when any new objects are
presented to its notice, such as a party traversing the bush or pitching
their tent in the vicinity of its retreat, it becomes very prying and
inquisitive, often perching on the dead branch of some neighbouring
tree, and watching with the greatest curiosity the kindling of the fire
and the preparation of the meal; its presence, however, owing to the
quietude with which it passes through the forest, and the almost
noiseless manner in which it settles, is seldom detected until it emits
its extraordinary gurgling, laughing note, which generally calls forth
some exclamation according with the temper of the hearer, such as “There
is our old friend the Laughing Jackass,” or an epithet of a less
friendly character: not unfrequently does its life pay the penalty of
its temerity; for if, as is often the case, the traveller’s larder be
ill-provided and his appetite keen, but a few minutes elapse before it
is roasting over the fire it was lately surveying with so much
curiosity. So remarkable are the sounds emitted by the bird that they
have been noted by nearly every writer on New South Wales and its
productions. Mr. Caley states that its “loud noise, somewhat like
laughing, may be heard at a considerable distance, from which
circumstance, and its uncouth appearance, it probably received the
extraordinary appellation given to it by the settlers on their first
arrival in the colony.” Captain Sturt says, “Its cry, which resembles a
chorus of wild spirits, is apt to startle the traveller who may be in
jeopardy, as if laughing and mocking at his misfortune;” and Mr.
Bennett, in his ‘Wanderings,’ says, “Its peculiar gurgling laugh,
commencing in a low and gradually rising to a high and loud tone, is
often heard in all parts of the colony; the deafening noise being poured
forth while the bird remains perched upon a neighbouring tree; it rises
with the dawn, when the woods re-echo with its gurgling laugh; at sunset
it is again heard; and as that glorious orb sinks in the west, a last
‘good night’ is given in its peculiar tones to all within hearing.”
The Great Brown Kingfisher does not inhabit Van Diemen’s Land, nor has
it yet been met with in Western Australia; it may be said to be almost
solely confined to that portion of Australia lying between Spencer’s
Gulf and Moreton Bay, the south-eastern corner, as it were, of the
continent. The plate in the Pl. Enl., quoted above, has been considered
by all previous writers to have reference to this bird, and while I
coincide in this opinion, I think that some mistake must have arisen as
to the locality, and that it never visits New Guinea nor even the
northern coast of Australia, where its place is supplied by the _Dacelo
cervina_ and _D. Leachii_. Unlike most other species, it frequents every
variety of situation; the luxuriant brushes stretching along the coast,
the more thinly-timbered forest, the belts of trees studding the parched
plains and the brushes of the higher ranges being alike favoured with
its presence; over all these localities it is rather thinly dispersed
being nowhere very numerous.
I believe that this bird seldom, if ever, drinks; consequently the most
arid plains are as suitable to its habits as the shrouded river sides
and the flat brushes near the coast.
Its food, which is of a mixed character, consists exclusively of animal
substances; reptiles, insects and crabs, however, appear to be its
favourite diet, upon which it is destined by nature to subsist: it
devours lizards with avidity, and it is not an unfrequent sight to see
it bearing off a snake in its bill to be eaten at leisure; it also preys
on small mammalia. I recollect shooting a Great Brown Kingfisher in
South Australia in order to secure a fine rat I saw hanging from its
bill, and which proved to be a rare species inhabiting the plains of
that part of the country. It breeds during the months of August and
September, and generally selects a hole in a large gum-tree for the
purpose; making no nest, but depositing its beautiful pearl-white eggs,
which are one inch and nine lines long by one inch and five lines broad,
on the decomposed wood at the bottom of the hole. When there are young
ones in it, it defends its breeding-place with great courage and daring,
darting down upon any intruder who may attempt to ascend the tree, and
inflicting severe and dangerous blows with its pointed bill.
The sexes present so little difference in the colouring of their
plumage, that they are scarcely distinguishable from each other; neither
do the young at a month old exhibit any great variation from the adult,
the only difference being that the markings are somewhat darker and the
brown more generally diffused.
It bears confinement remarkably well, and is one of the most amusing
birds for the aviary with which I am acquainted: examples have been
brought alive to England; one lived for several years in the Gardens of
the Zoological Society of London, and at the moment I am writing (April
1843) a fine individual brought from New South Wales by Mr. Yaldwyn, is
now living at his seat at Blackdown in Sussex, where it attracts the
attention of every one by its singular actions and extraordinary notes,
which are poured forth as freely as in its native wilds.
Forehead brown, each feather with a stripe of blackish brown down the
centre; crown of the head, lores, ear-coverts, and a broad band passing
round the occiput blackish brown; space between the crown of the head
and the band encircling the occiput, and the back of the neck buff,
crossed by fine irregular lines of dark brown; back and wings brownish
black; the wing-coverts and rump tipped with verditer green; primaries
white at the base, black for the remainder of their length, and stained
with green on their outer margins immediately behind the white; upper
tail-coverts blackish brown, crossed by several broad irregular bands of
rusty red; tail brownish black, tipped with white, the white increasing
in extent as the feathers recede from the centre; the central feathers
crossed near the tip with rusty red; the lateral feathers with brownish
black, the bands being very narrow near the tip, and gradually
increasing in breadth as they approach the base, where the white
interspaces also become tinged with rusty red; under surface pale buffy
white, crossed by fine irregular freckled markings of dark brown; upper
mandible brownish black; under mandible pale buff; feet olive; irides
dark brown; eyelash olive-brown.
The figures represent a male and two young of the natural size.
[Illustration: