In response to the question about Nightingales by Kurtis, I've found the
following entry from the book by Long (1981) on 'Introduced Birds of the
World'. Melbourne is the only place they attempted to introduce the
species it seems.
Australia
'Hardy (1928) who quotes Wilson (1857) reports that it was arranged with a
person in England in 1857 to purchase six Nightingales at eight to ten
dollars each. These birds were imported, but apparently cats killed one
bird and injured another while they were being kept in captivity. The
remaining four birds were released some days later from the Botanical
Gardens, Melbourne. Two of these birds could not fly and were recaptured
and the other two were both seen and heard in the gardens in the following
spring. The species also apears to have been imported in 1857 and 1858,
but there are no other indications that any more were liberated.
The introductions evidently failed as the Nightingale did not become
established in Australia.'
Ref:
Long, John L. (1981) Introduced Birds of the World: The worldwide history,
distribution and influence of birds introduced to new environments. p.
311.
Agricutural Protection Board of Western Australia. Reed: Sydney.
Martin O'Brien
Executive Scientific Officer, Scientific Advisory Committee
Department of Sustainability and Environment
4/250 Victoria Pde. (PO Box 500), East Melbourne 3002
Tel: 9412 4567 Fax: 9412 4586
(prefixes: Interstate 03 International 613)
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