Vol. VII.-] Siyay Feathers. A.<=^ 



iyo7 



year I witnessed another Eagle's death from strychnine. Three 

 or four were circhng leisurely around above a grassy slope, but 

 how high in the air cannot be said, save that they were beyond 

 the range of a shot-gun. All at once one of them, shutting its 

 wings tight, fell head foremost like a stone to the earth, and, 

 hurrying across, I found the Eagle quite dead. Whether its 

 life went out with the first contraction of the wings or whether 

 impact with the ground finished it are points that cannot be 

 decided. Some thirty years ago I had the opportunity of a 

 lifetime in noting an Eagle making a swoop to capture a hare 

 that was hiding in a bunch of tussock grass on our sheep-run. 

 Beyond question, it was a magnificent sight — in fact, no word- 

 painting could give it accurately, for it was one of those things 

 whose sublimity can only be realised by the eye. The bird 

 when first observed might be one thousand paces distant, its 

 altitude in the air two or three hundred yards. He swept 

 forward with great speed — in short, I had never seen a Wedge- 

 tail travelling so swiftly before. There was no flapping of wings. 

 The whole performance was on a very gradually lowering line, 

 whose terminus was a few feet directly above the game. On 

 gaining that point he turned round, but before he accomplished 

 that purpose, puss, springing from her cover, darted for a fence 

 that had a 2-foot wall under its wires. The Eagle at once 

 went in pursuit. The hare evaded him by running close to the 

 wall — a favourite dodge with hares when chased by Wedge- 

 tails. Eagles are now rare birds in the region where I was 

 brought up. This clearance resulted from the free use of strych- 

 nine. Before the advent of that deadly poison our only means 

 of coping with them were shot-guns, but if we had depended on 

 them as engines of destruction Eagles would be plentiful now. 

 In my boyhood's days they could be writ down exceedingly 

 numerous. Some of the squatters had used iron dog-traps ; 

 one bird was shot minus a foot, which it was supposed to have 

 left in the jaws of a trap. They are hard to kill with loose shot ; 

 if sitting with back towards the shooter their wings protect 

 them, while if fired on directly in front it takes strong-going lead 

 to reach vital parts. An overhead flying shot, I have found, is 

 not effective. — ISAAC Batey. Drouin, Victoria, 15th April, 1907. 



Forgotten Feathers. 

 By H. Kendali,, Melbourne. 

 Nomenclature of the Emu. — Under the title " How the 

 Australian Emu Came by its Vernacular Name," Mr. J. J. 

 Fletcher, M.A., B.Sc, has rendered a great service to the orni- 

 thologists of Australia by recalling some "Forgotten F'eathers." 

 He has had facilities for examining early records which to many 

 are a sealed book. Beginning with the arrival of Governor 



