2 26 Correspondence f ,^ 



Emu 

 d April 



brook. From the 25th of March I began to keep careful watch 

 for the Sand-Martin {Cotile riparid), the most dehcate of our 

 three Irish HirundinidcE, yet ever the first to arrive ; I never 

 knew this frail little wanderer to fail in putting in an appearance 

 between the date mentioned and the end of the month. There 

 I would surely find them seeking their insect prey even in the 

 midst of driving sleet and a bitter easterly wind. Same 

 with our Swallow {Hirundo rusticd), only a week later. Same 

 with the delicate Willow- Wren {Phjlloscoptis trocJnbts) and the 

 still more fragile Chiffchaff {P. riifus), only a full month later. 

 Climatic conditions have nothing whatever to do with migration. 

 Will Mr. Mattingley kindly explain how a bird bred last year in 

 Dublin, having wintered in Egypt, when the " homing instinct " 

 comes to it, can possibly know in sunny Africa the " climatic 

 conditions " affecting Ireland ? It knows nothing of the sort ; 

 it simply wants to go to its birthplace, and it goes there blindly 

 and unreasoningly, even though that "instinct" brings it to 

 starvation and death. I have seen too often the whole pitiful 

 tragedy of a late spring not to know of what I am talking. — 



I am, &c. 



Queensland Museum, 



Brisbane, 12th February, 1906. 



J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 



Obituary Notice. 



FLETCHER — On the 23rcl January, 1906, at Wilmot, Tasmania, Price Fletcher, 

 youngest son of the late Rev. Richard Fletcher, St. Kilda. 



The death of Mr. Price Fletcher will be learned with great 

 regret. He will be best remembered by bird-lovers as the 

 " Bush Naturalist " of The Queenslander, of which journal he was 

 for many years agricultural editor. 



The late naturalist was born in 1836, at Manchester, where his 

 father was Congregational minister. When he was 17 years of 

 age his father was sent to take charge of the Congregational 

 Church at St. Kilda, Victoria. Mr. Price Fletcher became 

 engaged in pastoral pursuits, and found in the Australian bush 

 great scope for his taste for natural history. He travelled 

 extensively in Central and Eastern Australia, from north to 

 south. Writing under the noni de pluuic " A Bush Naturalist " 

 in TJie Qiieenslander, the late journalist's natural history sketches 

 were first brought into prominence by an article " Birds as 

 Indicators of Water;" and "The Struggle for Existence in the 

 Northern Scrubs " — a masterpiece — was reprinted by many 

 English journals, while his more serial bird observations, under 

 the heading " The Great North-Western Interior," appeared 

 from time to time in 1878 and 1879. 



