A New Bird Killer.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 101, 9 October 1908, Page 3

A New Bird Killer.

Between little owls and big hawks, and a new bird-killer that has now appeared in Australia, it would seem that the ordinary small bird is going to have a terrible struggle for existence. The "little owls" have already been established in New Zealand, and the hawks and moreporks we have had always with us. The new bird-killer, which has now been noticed in Australia, kills only sparrows, grasshoppers and small insects. Mr A. J. Taylor, of Wheatacre, in the Condobolin district of New South Wales, first reputed the cannibal habits of this bird, which he said was a large bird, blue in colour, with a black head; and very destructivle to sparrows. In fact, since the arrival of these aerial cannibals, sparrows are practically an unknown quantity about Wheatacre. There are about four of them in a flock, and they keep together. They balance in the air like a hawk. They keep after the grasshopper but they are death on the sparrows. The other birds are not frightened of them. They are very quick on the wing, and, when flying, spread out the tail. The birds were afterwards identified as the ground cuckooshirke (Pteropodocus Phasianella). It is about the size of „a small pigeon, but more slender. It measures fourteen inches from tip of bill to end of tail. Commonly they do more running than flying. Insects arc their chief food, and they are not known to do damage.