(j) Proposed Toonumbar National Park.-Action on this pro- 
posal has not yet been concluded. The area-in the North Coast 
district of New South Wales-is to be personally inspected by the 
Minister for Forests in New South Wales and the Forestry Com- 
missioner before further action can be taken. 
3.  GENERAL PRESERVATION. 
(a) Grasshopper Poison and Bird Life.-Certain districts of 
Queensland and New South Wales have recently experienced one 
of the worst visitations of Plague Locusts or Grasshoppers ever 
recorded in this country. Among the various means used for des- 
truction of the hordes of the menacing insects, poisoned bran is 
regarded with the most favour by the officials of the Department 
of Agriculture, and is considered by them to be the most valuable 
of those which it is economical to use. Even so, the cost is very 
great indeed to both Government and individual landholders; while, 
at best, it can only prove a palliative-though producing a 100 
per cent. kill in parts of the many millions of acres of land affected. 
Bird lovers and naturalists generally have been much exercised 
as to the potential destruction of native birds throughout the coun- 
try affected-totalling several thousands of square miles-and the 
matter has been brought up at several meetings of the Council of 
this organisation, while also forming the subject of correspondence. 
Evidence, as placed before us, and as appearing in the daily Press 
of Australia, has been highly conflicting here. There have been 
several claims that large numbers of birds had been destroyed (a) 
through eating the poisoned bran itself; and, (b) through the eating 
of the poisoned Grasshoppers. 
Several members of the Graziers' Association of New South 
Wales have reported and have given specific instances of the 
destruction of bird life through the use of this bran bait. Mr. 
W. G. Howard, of the Gilgandra district, is reported as saying 
that, after he had laid out poisoned bran in accordance with Depart- 
mental instructions to poison Grasshoppers, he found at least 12 
birds, known as blue larks, dead in a small paddock. The country 
was timbered and grassed, and hundreds of birds could have been 
dead without being seen. 
Mr. Howard's "Blue Larks" would, no doubt, be the so-called 
Wood Swallows, Artamus, also known as Blue Martin. Mr. W. D. 
Milgate, of Curban, wrote as follows- 
"I have used poison bait for Grasshoppers, according to the 
formula recommended by the Department, and I can definitely 
state that, after using the bait, I saw quite a number of Wood 
Swallows dead, and as many as 10 under one tree. I never saw 
any dead birds previous to laying the poison. I am definitely against 
the use of the poison, as I am satisfied that it destroys the birds 
that are the Grasshoppers' worst enemy. 
13 
From Australian Wildlife, Vol. 1, No. 24, 
Jan. 1938, pp. 13-1.5