1 88 stray Feathers [.st^April 



six abandoned nests of the Red-browed Finch {yEgtJitha 

 teinpornlts), containing a dead young Cuckoo {Chakococcyx) and 

 a clutch of nearly incubated eggs. In every case the young 

 Cuckoo was no more than a day or two old, and the thought 

 suggested itself that the Cuckoo had either been poisoned by 

 the seed supplied by the Finch (the Cuckoo being an insec- 

 tivorous bird), or the Finches had discovered the fraud 

 perpetrated on them and refused to feed the stranger. In four 

 of the cases the Finch had built again in close proximity to the 

 abandoned nest, and each nest contained a fresh set of eggs, but 

 no tgg of the Cuckoo. — T. H. Trp:gallas. 



Record Clutch of Struthidea's Eggs. — On the 14th 

 December, 1907, I found a Jumper's nest in a small brigalow 

 (Acacia), and, on climbing up found to my surprise and pleasure 

 that it contained no less than twelve eggs, all fresh or slightly 

 incubated. The eggs differ considerably, and I think three 

 if not four females must have laid in the nest. Three of the 

 eggs are very long, and taper much to the smaller end. Three 

 others, again, are similar — they are short, blunt-ended eggs, the 

 markings on two being extremely small and faint, while the third 

 egg is quite white. I have never seen an entirely white Stru- 

 thidea's egg before. The remaining six are all much alike, and 

 may be the production of one bird or two — most probably two. 

 Observing that the eggs were fresh, I would have left them a few 

 da}'s to see if the birds laid any more, but I was afraid of an 

 iguana finding the nest, so I thought " twelve eggs in the hand 

 are worth twenty in an iguana," and took them. Another nest 

 found previously contained eight eggs heavily incubated, so the 

 Jumpers must be bent on rearing large famalies this year. 

 — Ernest D. Barnard. Gladstone, Queensland, 16/12/07. 



Antics of the Soutih:rn Stone-Plover {Burhinus 

 graliarms) AND TEiE "WALTZING Instinct" of Ostriches. — 

 In Nature of 23rd January, 1908, p. 278, is a reference to an 

 article by S. J. E. Duerdin in 'Ca^t Journal of the South African 

 Ornithologists' Union for December, 1907, on the " waltzing 

 instinct" of Ostriches, as follows :— Ostriches, it appears, are 

 in the habit of running off suddenly with a peculiar whirring 

 movement, sometimes one way, sometimes another, simul- 

 taneously spreading their wings, which are alternately raised 

 and depressed. These movements, the author suggests, may be 

 connected with escape from the clutches of the large carnivora. 

 " Indulged m instinctively as play while young, and even when 

 adult, the performance gives the bird expertness in the rapid 

 jerking movements which are those first followed in alarm." 



