IN THE BUSH.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1923, Page 3

IN THE BUSH.

CATS LIVE IN RAllun BCRROW'S. SYDNEY, Aug. 15. There are places in Australia where the domesticated cat, going hack I” its primitive wild lile, is living in tabhit burrows, and is sharing these populous holes ill l he earth with the rabbits. These eats, along with the iguana and hush lires. are doing much, ,Y is stated, to hint out some of the most valuable of Australia s bird lile. Taking advantage a lew days ago ol his visit - to Sydney, .Mr Sidney William Jackson, the well-known curator ~f Mr White's scientific collections at Relit fees, near Scot:-.-pent a few hours in the |.manic Cardens, and was .really struck with ih- dark loiotimig of the bird-, in harmony w ith th-ir surroundings, as contrasted ulin the 11 —.lit er colouring of birds ol the same speiies living in their natural haunts in the hush. This new colouring lias been evolved probably only after the lapse of years; and after long absence from their natural abode, amidst the luminous atmosphere ol the wide and sunlit spaces. It is to this new environment that Mr Jackson attiihutos the change that has come uvet these little feathered creatures. A conspicuous example of this change in colouring is the brown Uvealrlier, or "Jnck\ Winter.” Mr Jackson observed the same .strange eliaraeteristie in the litlle yellow-ruin pad tit. tin- spine-hilled honey eater, the New Holland honey eater, the yellow-lueiisted robin, and llie enininon black and while faiitail.

The fact that llic-e birds are so lame speaks well for the treatment of them |,v passers-by iu the gardens. .Mr .lackson watched a ".lackv A\ inter, for instance, busily building a little home for its prospective laniilv, in one ot the tig trees only about l<Ht trom the ground. The spine-hilled honey eater Air Jackson found just as friendly. One of these birds was sipping honey from a Mower within 2l't of Inin. MV Jackson instances ibe common sparrow as another illu-t ration of the iollueiiee of surroundings oil bird hie. The soarrow in the city, be says, k much darker tlnm the bird of the same class in the hush.

The man or the hoy with the rifle is often regarded as the chief agency in the destruction of our bird life, hut it is the belief of Mr Jackson, who has travelled from one end ol Australia to (lie other in furtherance of Ins scientific work, that the ground birds, i.e., th,. birds which live mainly on the ground, will tie gradually blotted out in Australia through eats, hush fires, amt the iguana, lie points to the ground parrot, tor instance, which builds its nest on the ground, and which has now been wiped out in places where It was common 25 years sign. la many remote places in Australia. Mr Jackson has found the common bouse eat. left behiinl probably by men in camps and others, living it- primitive wild life. In far western (.lueeiishiiul. away in the Never-Never, common house cals now lying in rabbit burrows were frequent vi-itor> t<> Mr Jackson's camp.

A visit to a place in the north-west of New South Wales m Hill m well within Mr Jackson's memory. "I found there." lie says, "quite a number of domestic eats living in rabbit burrows. At sitn-ct you could see t'te rabbits and the eats coming out of the burrows together. My impression is that the cats live on the young rabbits. although I did not see any actual evidence of t his." There the eats were so common that, no matter w here one camped, according to Mr Jackson, one would hear the common spotted bower bird - a clever mimic—imitating the cat’s plaintive mee-owing.