^°|-gj'-] Stray Feathers. I5 



away a few yards, and all the little birds followed, chiding and 

 ridiculing him. So great was the commotion that others came 

 to look on — the Carinated Fly-catcher, the Masked Wood- 

 Swallow, the Black-and-White Campophaga, and ever eager 

 Drongo. A week later the scene was revisited, and the silent 

 Owl still moped within a few yards of his first perch in the 

 midst of a crowd of noisy witnesses to his strange appearance; 

 or was the sage fowl sitting in solemn judgment on the frivolity 

 of his fussy critics ? — E. J. Banfield. 



Annotations. — Megapodms duperreyi (Scrub-Fowl). — From 

 Mr. E. J. Banfield, Dunk Island (N.Q.), I received a skin of a 

 Megapode chick, together with the following note : — ■ 



" One of my dogs flushed it in the forest country twice, and 

 before it got on the wing in the long grass on the third occasion 

 seized and killed it. So strong was the flight and well sustained 

 for about 200 yards that I can scarcely believe a Megapode 

 chick so young as the size proclaims could accomplish it. 

 Further, the nearest nest-mound is fully three-quarters of a 

 mile away, and I have never before seen so young a Megapode 

 so far away from its birth-place. Judging from the size and 

 appearance of chicks that I have seen dug out of the mounds, I 

 am convinced that if this is one it could not have been more than 

 24 hours old, and I fancy the colour is more pronounced 

 (browner) than the Megapode of the age, which usually possesses 

 a greyer tint. 



" I have seen another bird similar in size and appearance, the 

 cry of wliich, as it rose at my feet, was a brief, chattering 'cheep.' 

 There was nothing in the crop." 



I am not aware that an Australian Megapode chick has been 

 previously described. The general colour of the upper surface is 

 rufous or rufous-brown, more or less barred transversely with 

 black, the bars being strongest on the secondaries and wing- 

 coverts. The head is dusky-brown ; chin buff, shading into the 

 darker (rufous) brown of the under parts. Primaries, which are 

 fully developed, are blackish-brown. Wing, 4 inches ; tarsus, 

 1.2 inches ; bill, .4 in. 



In general appearance the Megapode chick resembles that of 

 the Lipoa (Mallee-Hen) rather than that of the Talegallus 

 (Brush-Turkey). 



Sittella striata (Striated Tree-runner). — In " Nests and Eggs," 

 p. 344, I stated that " the well-defined black head of some of the 

 birds suggests that they are the males, but the point has to be 

 settled." 



Mr. F. L. Berney, Wyangarie, North Queensland, has kindly 

 forwarded me a specimt^i of a black-headed bird which he care- 



