■^°S"1 Stray Feathers. 245 



Stray Feathers 



New Zealand Notes. — Tl niay be of some interest to Aus- 

 tralian memhers to know that this year the Double-banded 

 Dotterel, Cliaradrins biciiictiis, is a very rare bird here. I have 

 seen only ti\e indi\iduals all told. Last year a Hock of twenty 

 was counted by me on the local domain, of which at least five 

 pairs nested in that area, say 50 to 100 acres. In spite of much 

 search, I found no nests until after the young had hatched out; 

 when I found several broken shells, and was ])romising myself 

 better luck (with more ])erseverance) this year. To my astonish- 

 ment not a single pair has nested on the domain, and all told, 

 as I have said, I have seen, while doing ni}- rounds, and while 

 fishing in the rivers, only five individuals. Have they nested in 

 Australia this year? By the way, has anyone noticed that the 

 introduced Goldfinch feeds freely on the seeds of the Blue Gum, 

 Eucalyptus alohulus, a common tree on the Canterbury Plains. 

 I frecpiently see the dainty little birds picking at the ripe seed- 

 cai)sules as they lie on the road, presumably trying to extract the 

 seed therefrom. 



A bird census of this district miglit l)e interesting. JNly bounds 

 are: — The Selwyn River, Lake Kllesmere, and the sea to the 

 mouth of the Rakaia River, up that stream to the Christchurch- 

 Dunedin railway, and back along that to the Selwyn. The latter 

 river is a rain river, and the Rakaia is snow-fed. Both contain 

 trout, and the Rakaia swarms with salmon, mostly Pacific, and 

 a few Atlantic. The fishing is excellent, and the shooting 

 (Pheasants, Quail (Californian), Hares and Rabbits) would be 

 so too, if it were not for inveterate poaching. The avifauna, if 

 shore birds be excluded, is almost wholly exotic, and I think 

 four pairs of Kingfishers {HaIcyo)i 7'agaiis) and the same num- 

 ber of Robins {Pctroica inacroccpliela) for the zvJiole area (about 

 10 miles square), and a pair of Warblers {Pseudogerygone igata) 

 and the Grey Fantail ( Rhipidura flabellifera) to each farm (and 

 perhaps half that number of the Swamp Harrier (Circus gouldi) 

 would complete the census. I had forgotten the Pipit (^Inthus 

 novce-zealandicc) and the Silver-eye (Zosterops lateralis), but it's 

 a poor list surely.— T. J. Ick-Hewins, M.B., B.S., R.A.O.U. 



P.S. — Since writing the above I have been watching the Rakaia 

 River in flood, after heavy thunderstorms in the Southern Alps, 

 and was reminded by the diving Terns, of watching a flooded 

 river in New South Wales two years ago, and seeing the White- 

 plumed Honeyeater (Meliphaga penicillata), taking deliberate 

 headers into the torrent, going apparently right under almost 

 every time. 1 have never seen any other land bird go so thor- 

 oughly into the water, especially into a swift-flowing and turbid 

 stream. — T. J. Ick-Hewins. 



