Vol. V. 



J Stray Feathers. 209 



neighbouring Sound, but, unfortunately, I have had no time to 

 visit them. The Dottrels (Red-Capped) are fairly numerous, 

 but I have not found many of their eggs, as, owing to their 

 laying in the sand and old sea-tang, one often passes them by 

 without noticing, their colour, like most other birds' eggs, 

 assimilating with their surroundings. 



8th November. — Saw two Mountain-Ducks with six fledglings. 

 One of the parents fled with the )'oung ones into the centre of a 

 lagoon, whilst the other followed me for hundreds of yards, 

 settling on the ground a short distance ahead of me with wings 

 fluttering, as one will notice many small birds do, to decoy us 

 from the vicinity of the nest. 



28/11/05. — Discovered a Reef-Heron's nest in a cranny of rock 

 on a small island. It consisted of a perfectly flat nest of coarse 

 grass stems, on which were deposited three light blue eggs. 

 The young were just emerging from the eggs. The Wood- 

 Swallow, Whistling Shrike-Thrush, Olive Thickhead, and a lot 

 of the Honey-eaters are very scarce this year. The Brown 

 Quail are now laying, but I cannot see any of the Painted 

 {Ttirnix) variety, which always lay a month earlier than the 

 former. We have the Black Crow-Shrike in fair numbers, and 

 have found several nests, and the detested Ravens (from a 

 sheep-farmer's point of view) are always much to the fore. — J. 



D. Maclaine. 



* * * 



Young Cuckoo Fed r.v Two Patrs of Honey-eaters. 

 — When in the bush on 23rd December, 1905, with my 

 mate, we were attracted by the familar cry — " Chirrip, chirrip, 

 chirrip"- — of the j-oung Pallid Cuckoo. Proceeding in the direc- 

 tion from whence the sound came we soon located the bird 

 sitting on a branch near the ground, to all appearances not 

 more than a day out of the nest. As we approached a pair of 

 Black-headed Honey-eaters appeared ; then a pair of New 

 Holland Honey-eaters arrived, making a great commotion, but 

 keeping at a distance. The Black-Caps took no heed of us 

 whatever, but fed the Cuckoo and flew away. Great was our 

 surprise when the " New- Hollands," as soon as the " Black- 

 Caps " left, came down and fed the Cuckoo also. Making up 

 our minds to see more of this we sat down and filled our pipes 

 just as the Black-Caps returned, and a second or two brought 

 the New-Hollands, the latter keeping in the background till the 

 Black-Caps had gone again ; then like lightning they would 

 pop down, feed the youngsters, and off. My mate was bent on 

 capturing the Cuckoo, but I would not hear of this till we had 

 spent half the morning watching this performance, the same 

 thing taking place each time. Then, armed with a green 

 branch, my mate swept the Cuckoo to the ground and held it 



