Vol. VI. 



\goj J Stray Feathers. I^T 



warblers of the bush can have the least doubt that those delicate 

 strains, audible only a few feet from their source, are prompted 

 by the spirit of affection, and by that alone. The poet is close 

 to the truth when he sings of " the low love-language of the 

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



From Magazines, &c. 



The Redthroat. — Mr. Donald Macdonald in his " Nature 

 Notes" in The Arg7is, quotes from a correspondent (" Mallee 

 Bird") an interesting field note regarding the Redthroat 

 {Pyrrliolcemus hrunnea) : — " It is shy and vigilant, its haunt 

 being generally thick scrub or turpentine bush, so that it is 

 difficult to find the nest. This is oval in shape, of great size com- 

 pared with its tiny architect, wondrously compact in its blending 

 of dry strips of bark and grass. It is warmly lined with 

 feathers, and has an entrance near the top.- Three eggs of a 

 rather dark tint are the full complement. The nest is built 

 entirely by the female, and, like most of the Wren family, it 

 will, on the slightest suspicion of being watched, leave a nest 

 half finished and begin a new one. It seldom associates with 

 other small birds, and on a calm day its sweet, low note can be 

 heard 50 or 60 yards away. The sound is something like that 

 made in whistling through the teeth, yet in a high key. It 

 might be called a warble." 



BOURKE Parrakeet. — In May 1904 Mr. W. R. Fasey pur- 

 chased in England a pair of Bourke Parrakeets {Neophe-ina 

 bourkei). He lost the hen shortly afterwards, but in March, 

 1905, procured six more birds, of which one hen lived. "The 

 survivor," says Mr. Fasey in The Avicultiiral Magazine for 

 July, " is the parent of the two strong and healthy birds now 

 flying about as well as any birds I have. There is practically 

 nothing to record. They appear to be easy to breed, and sit 

 very steadily, the hen never leaving the nest even when I have 

 tried to disturb her. They are quiet and peaceable birds, and not 

 in the least interesting, excepting in the evening before going to 

 roost, when they fly about very wildly. The young are marked 

 exactly as the adult pair, the only difference I can discover being 

 their rather smaller size. The old pair are now nesting again. 

 Neither these birds nor any of the Grass-Parrakeets (excepting 

 the Budgerigars) can stand much cold, and I am of opinion they 

 cannot tie kept alive for any lengthy period without growing 

 grass to eat." 



