^"'-"^J"'-] Orton, a Trip in Search of the Spotted Scrub-Wren. 103 



Eagle leaving its nest, and within a short time, with the help of 

 a rope ladder, my friend called down from 70 feet up that the 

 nest contained a pair of well-marked eggs. 



We had decided to start for home that evening, but on reaching 

 camp Mr. Cook, who was leasing the country, rode up and per- 

 suaded us to return on the following day, which we luckily 

 decided to do. In the morning we started off solely in search of 

 Anellobia in different directions, and I had not gone far when 

 I heard one gurgling, and saw it chase a Singing Honey-eater 

 from a kaufi thicket ; it then sat and preened its feathers, and 

 after a diligent search I found its nest ready for eggs. Hearing 

 some birds farther away, I located the thicket they were in, and 

 was following them up when I ran into Mr. Sandland, who was also 

 after them. I found an old nest, and in the next bush was a 

 new nest, containing the single egg, and not 50 yards away Mr. 

 Sandland called out, and he had another nest (one egg), only 

 3 feet from the ground, in some red gum suckers. Our luck had 

 changed, and before reaching camp I found in another thicket 

 a nest with one half-incubated egg, which had been deserted. 

 Every nest we found was lined with the dead woolly flower of the 

 banksia, and not large enough to hold two eggs, being about the 

 size of a nest of a Wood-Swallow {Artamus cinereus). In the 

 afternoon we started for home, allowing two hours to try to secure 

 a specimen of the Sericornis where we had seen them, but we 

 could not see or hear one. 



I am sure the vast sand-plains have many rare birds hidden 

 away, as only three years ago, a few miles north, I saw the Lesser 

 Bristle-Bird {Sphemira littoralis) in a thick mallee thicket. 

 Although I have made many trips over the sand-plain country 

 and thickets between Wongan Hills and the coast, I have never 

 seen or heard Psophodes nigrogitlaris, yet this is the country where 

 Gilbert first found the bird. W^e hope at some future date, with 

 more time at our disposal, to make a more thorough search. 



Cormorants : Are They Pests or Otherwise ? 



By W. T. Forster, Local Secretary to the R.A.O.U. in 



Western Australia. 



After reading the article appearing in the April number of The 

 Emu * by Captain S. A. White, entitled " Further Notes on 

 Cormorants, Their Food, Temperatures, &c.," it occurred to me 

 that a few observations made by me during a period of nearly 

 sixty years might be of some interest to the readers of The Emu, 

 and perhaps throw some additional light on the subject of the 

 dietary of the Cormorant. 



Captain White's observations are, no doubt, of great value, 



* Emu, voL xvii., page 214. 



