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208 BERULDSEN, Birds of Marrapinna Station Australian

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208 BERULDSEN, Birds of Marrapinna Station Australian 208 BERULDSEN, Birds of Marrapinna Station [ Bird Watcher Australian Bustard, Eupodotis australis. An irregular visitor. Brolga, Grus rubicundus. An irregular visitor. White Ibis, T hreskiornis molucca. An irregular visitor. Red-winged Parrot, Aprosmictus erythropterus. An occasional visitor, usually in small parties. Known to have nested in the gums along the creek in 1967. Kookaburra, Dacelo gigas. A pair used to inhabit the trees by the homestead water-hole. Not observed since 1965. SPECIES OBSERVED ELSEWHERE IN THE DISTRICT On the trip to the station from Broken Hill a stop was made at a roadside dam, where a Little Pied Cormorant, Phalacrocorax melanoleucus, and a Hoary-headed Grebe, Podiceps poliocephalus, were observed. Several Brown Songlark, Cinclorhamphus cruralis, were calling near-by. While at the station a day trip was undertaken to White Cliffs, to the east, where several hours were spent in observing Australian Dotterels, Peltohyas australis, and Gibber-birds, Ashbyia lovensis. Both species were reasonably common and were feeding young. Orange and Crimson Chats, Epthianura aurifrons and E. tricolor, and Blue and White Wrens, Malurus leuconotus, were present in good number, and White-backed Swallows, Cheramoeca leucos­ terna, were nesting in a few of the older opal mining shafts. On the return trip to Broken Hill, a stop was made at a point some eight to ten miles east of the junction of the Tibooburra and White Cliffs roads. Orange and Crimson Chats were again plentiful, and a Stubble Quail, Coturnix pectoralis, was flushed. A Neophema parrot was also flushed, and immediately attracted attention by the large area of dark blue on the front of the head and on the face, and the dark green of the back. It "flitted" slowly around, tess than six feet from the ground, and within 20 feet for fully half a minute, apparently wishing to return to its chosen feeding spot. Having then, apparently, decided that I was not going to move, it rose higher and flew off towards the south-east. At first I thought that it was a hen Scarlet-chested Parrot, Neophema splendida, how­ ever after examining the display of Neophema parrots in the Adelaide Zoo on our return, there remained no doubt in my mind that what I had seen was a male Turquoise Parrot, Neophema pu!chella. The Tawny-crowned Honeyeater feeding from boxthorn blossom. While walking through a large area of African Boxthorn, Lycium ferocissimum, with D. Trueman, at Altona, about ten miles west of Melbourne, on April 28, 1968, a Tawny-crowned Honeyeater, Gliciphila melanops, was observed in the bushes. This was the closest to Melbourne that I had seen this species. Although not uncommon in some coastal heath-lands and in the western parts of Victoria, the Tawny-crowned Honeyeater is scarce in the inner central district of the state. At Point Cook, near December ] SMITH, Starlings "Anting" 209 1969 Altona, on May 5, 1968, up to 12 of these birds were noted in the boxthorns. On June 16, 1968, at least three birds were seen in the area where the species was first found on April 28. One of the birds was feeding on the ground in a short grassed, open field, where it was seen to take small insects. A feature of the Tawny-crowned Honeyeater observations was that the birds fed largely from the nectar of boxthorn flowers. I had seen birds of this species feeding at blossom of this shrub some years before, at Reedy Lake, near Geelong. While these observations were being made at Altona I also saw White-plumed Honeyeater, Meliphaga penicillata, Yellow­ tufted Honeyeater, M. melanops, and Eastern Spinebill, Acan­ thorhynchus tenuirostris, taking nectar from the African Boxthorn, which is an introduced noxious weed. -F. T. H. Smith, Kew, Victoria, 28 I 6 I 1968. Spangled Drongo west of Melbourne. The Spangled Drongo, Chibea bracteata, occasionally visits the far eastern portion of Vic­ toria, usually during the Spring and Summer months. Records from the central district of this state are few. A bird resided in a garden at Mooroolbark, east of Melbourne, for three weeks in June, 1933 (Emu, 32: 95). Another, and much more recent occurrence, was at Newhaven, Phillip Island, during March and April, 1968 (Bird Observer, June 1968, p.4). At the east marsh, Altona Saltworks, on May 19, 1968, a Spangled Drongo was seen flying close to the water of an old salt­ pond. It was making toward the north-east, across the face of a strong north-west wind. Good views were obtained of the bird until it was lost to sight behind an area of dense samphire shrubs. I had seen large numbers of this species previously in the north of Australia, mainly in rain-forest, and it came as a surprise to see a Drongo so completely out of habitat. Possibly it had spent the summer even further west in the state; the Otway Ranges have areas that would seem quite acceptable to this bird. -F. T. H. Smith, Kew, Victoria, 28 I 6 I 1968. European Starlings "Anting". At approximately 1 p.m. on March 25, 1967, in the grounds of the Repatriation General Hos­ pital, West Heidelberg, Victoria, there were just over 20 European Starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, on a small bare patch of ground, sur­ rounded by lawn. The birds were hurrying about over the ground close together. I stopped to see what was the cause of the activity, and noticed that there was a large number of reddish ants, about one-third of an inch long. They, also, were running about in an agitated manner. The Starlings were picking up the ants and rubbing them briskly under their wings, mainly on the under side of the primaries, near the edge of the wing-linings. In several minutes of watching I did not see the ants applied to any other part of the bird. .
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