76 ' Stray Feathers. [isfTui' 



severely away from the nest. In half an hour's time I stole a 

 march on the young actors, and found them sitting up com- 

 placently, with eyes wide open ! Immediately, however, these 

 were closed again, and the uncanny mimicry (?) of caterpillars 

 was vigorously resumed. 



Is there, one wonders, any affinity between this queer process 

 and the Bell-Birds' habit of storing their nests with caterpillars ? 

 Of dozens of these homes examined, I do not recollect one that 

 had not its complement of caterpillars, usually the larvae of 

 Darala ocellata. Sometimes the insects were on the rim of the 

 nest ; sometimes they were under the brooding bird or beneath 

 the young ones ; sometimes they were obviously dead ; sometimes 

 they were alive, but sluggish ; and sometimes they appeared to be 

 petrified. I saw no indications of the caterpillars being used as 

 food,* and the only theory presenting itself was that the birds 

 gathered them for the same reason as the young Bell-Birds wave 

 their heads— defence purposes. Can anything better be offered ? 

 An interesting observation upon the subject is given by Mr. G. F. 

 Hill in his " Ornithological Notes on the Barclay Expedition of 

 I9ii-i2,"f wherein he remarks that he was surprised to find Bell- 

 Birds in the Northern Territory using a species of caterpillar 

 {Spilosoma, sp.) closely related to Spilosoma ohliqua, which he 

 has noted to be much favoured by Victorian Bell-Birds. The 

 matter was discussed also in early issues of The Emu, but no 

 definite conclusions arrived at. — A. H. Chisholm. Brisbane, 

 May, 1918. 



Correspondence. 



To the Editors of " The Emu." 



Dear Sirs, — In the issue for October, 1917, page 108, it is stated 

 that I express doubt in reference to the Pacific Gulls dropping 

 " Warrener shells " to break them and extract the contents. It 

 was my old friend Dr. A. M. Morgan who doubted the above, and 

 I brought evidence to bear in my article which appeared in The 

 Emu to substantiate my contention that the Gulls do drop the 

 shells. I would like to know what evidence caused Mr. Le Souef 

 to be " satisfied the Pacific Gull does drop the shells to break 

 them." Not by personal observation, I should think. — Yours 

 truly, 



S. A. WHITE. 

 " Wetunga," Fulham (S.A.), 22/11/17. 



*Mr. Charles Barnard, in " Nests and Eggs " (Campbell), makes the sound 

 point that the caterpillars usually gathered by Oreoica seem altogether too 

 hairy to be used as food by the birds. This observation applies particularly 

 to caterpillars of Darala and Spilosoma. — A. H. C. 



^Emu, vol. xii., p. 258. 



