Surely this is a satire(?) and the names suggests it. For one thing it has nothing about the “Indian miner”. The quote: “Black-throats are still plentiful in Brisbane, depending
on the time of the year.” is also a nonsense. They do not occur there at all. I also highly doubt: “As a kid I used to trap them and get two shillings and sixpence a pair for them, ditto zebra finches and double-barreds”. When I was young and had finches
(early to mid 1970s in Melbourne), I would regularly see the new wild trapped finches at the dealers. Many species were in those collections but I don’t believe I ever saw Black-throated Finches there. If so they would have been among the expensive ones. Although
I believe I recall Dr Richard Zann had them and included them in his research on behaviour.
Philip
.
From: Dr David Rosalky [
Sent: Saturday, 16 February, 2019 6:11 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] The Australian "Post of the Day"
The attached item in today’s Australian is an interesting challenge to the campaign against the “Indian miner”. Is his position true today? (Great name of the correspondent, by the way!)
David Rosalky
