^°'gj^-] Stray Feathers. 21 



surrounding my bush hut, where they can safely pick up a good 

 deal of food. Of the smaller birds, the graceful little Spinebills 

 (yAcanthorhynchus) are very bold, hanging to the slender stalks of 

 the Cape gooseberry bushes just outside my windows, and thrust- 

 ing their long needle-like bills into the yellow flowers in search of 

 nectar and insects. They make short, intensely rapid flights, the 

 quick wing-vibration causing a most peculiar rut-ut noise as they 

 fly or chase one another among the bushes. The tiny White- 

 eyes {Zosterops avndescens) and Long-tailed Wrens are also 

 constant visitors to the same bushes, whose soft, thick foliage 

 affords them ample shelter and at the same time plenty of 

 insect food. 



" ijth April. — The yellowish-green birds with beautiful prim- 

 rose patch at throat, Ptilotis flavigulavis, which used to build 

 regularly in the small tea-tree scrub here, are now again making 

 their appearance about the garden, but the pugnacious Dusky 

 Robins, though smaller, chase them away." 



" ist fujie. — It is quite interesting to watch the Shrike- 

 Thrushes, which are very bold, familiar birds, cling to the dead 

 gum trees and to the stumps which plentifully adorn our bush 

 paddocks, and wrench off with their straight, powerful beaks 

 great chunks of decaying wood in their eager search for grubs. 

 They make quite a litter at the foot of the trees by this 

 performance, reminding one of the old saw that " a carpenter is 

 known by his chips." After I had split up a semi-decayed log 

 which was full of White Ants (Termes), a Shrike-Thrush sat 

 upon the wood and gobbled up the soft white insects as quickly 

 as he knew how, while I worked close by. A Fire-tailed Finch 

 sat upon a stump near at hand, and whistled often a plaintive 

 note." — H. Stuart Dove. West Devonport, Tasmania. 



[Mr. Dove has in the press a work entitled " Wild Life in 

 Tasmania," which deals with the furred as well as the feathered 

 tribes of his State. The work will be illustrated. — Eds.] 



Forgotten Feathers. 



THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN BIRD-OBSERVER. 

 By E. Scott, Melbourne. 



(Read before the Bird Observers' did), i2tJi February., igo6.) 

 Those who find pleasure and profit in the study of Australian 

 birds must be interested in the first Englishman who observed 

 them on this continent, and who recorded what he saw. Dam- 

 pier was not a naturalist, but when he found a bird which he 

 had never seen before it gave him genuine pleasure, and, if he 

 could procure a specimen, he took home its skin to be 

 examined, classified, and described. He did not trouble himself 



