^°'^J'-] Stray Feathers. IQ 



It is a curious question why the sitting Swallow was walled in. 

 Was she an interloper, and did jealousy cause the others to 

 punish her? Or did she die on the nest? — (MiSS) J. A. 

 Fletcher. Wilmot, Tasmania, 29/5/06. 



Spring in Autumn. — When Mr. Hubert Thompson and 

 myself were recently taking a walk through the bush, we could 

 not help being struck by the springlike spirit which seemed to 

 animate the birds, especially the Honey-eaters, which flew in 

 and out among the branches, chasing each other with great 

 vivacity, as if mating, flashing their bright colours, and uttering 

 cheerful, rapid notes. This phase of a second spring in the fall 

 of the year has frequently struck me during a bush residence of 

 several years in the north-west of our island, and a few extracts 

 from my journal, kept at Table Cape, will exhibit my meaning 

 more clearly : — 



" \^tJi MarcJi, 1893. — Many of the smaller birds appear as if 

 mating afresh towards autumn, and after maintaining compara- 

 tive silence during the hottest part of summer, their notes may 

 again be heard about this time, fresh and sprightly as in spring. 

 Young Fire-tailed Finches i^Zonceginthiis bellus), quite recently 

 fledged, were lately observed. 



"■ iitJi April. — Heard the pleasant trilling notes of the Fan- 

 tailed Cuckoo {C. flabelliforinis) this morning, although none 

 have previously been heard for nearly two months. The Wood- 

 Swallow {Artatmis sordidus) is still numerous in the plains, and 

 a few Welcome Swallows may also be seenc 



"3IJ-/ May, 1894. — Winter is now beginning, but I hear 

 grasshoppers still chirping in the paddocks. Numbers of Robins 

 are about with a red patch on breast — females, and some, 

 perhaps, young males, of Petrceca leggii. The females of the 

 Flame-breasted Robin (/^. phceniced) are devoid of colour on 

 breast. Our Derwent Jackass [Cracticits cinereus) is making the 

 hillsides resound with his joyous, ringing notes. 



" i(^th April, 1896. — ^The weather now, after a very disturbed 

 summer, has settled down for a fine spell, and we are enjoying 

 beautiful warm days, with a clear atmosphere. The birds seem 

 to imagine that spring has returned, for the Honey-eaters are 

 clad in their brightest plumage and utter joyous, inspiriting 

 notes, while both yesterday and this morning I head the trilling 

 notes of the Fan-tailed Cuckoo again, and when I expected that 

 they had departed to the mainland. Possibly those heard now 

 are young birds hatched late in the season and left behind by 

 the main body. 



" 2nd May. — The ' Whistling Dicks ' or Shrike-Thrushes 

 {Collyriocincla rectirostris) are very lively just now, their loud, 

 cheerful notes resounding in the morning and evening about the 



