Vol. XX 



Q2I 1 Stray Feathers. 241 



Notes from Prairie, N.Q. — Tlie only observation here is 

 Peewits coming to the garden taps with grasshoppers and grubs 

 and dipping them in the water and beating them soft. Repeatedly 

 they will dip them until soft and apparently broken, -and then 

 fly aw^ay to the nest across the dry creek. The object is to make 

 them easily swallowable by the young birds. Storm-Birds, or 

 Channelbill Cuckoos, have been numerous around the homestead ; 

 so also were the Pallid Cuckoos a few weeks ago. I am disposed 

 to the opinion that they make their habitat adjacent to bush 

 dwellings. Some time ago I found a very fine dead specimen of 

 the Jabiru lying dried near a big stock tank at a windmill in dry 

 country. The brilliant bronze-blue plumage of the head was 

 retained in the dried skin. These birds must at times fly high, 

 otherwise this one could not have seen the tank. I first thought 

 some miscreants had shot the bird, but this was not so. It had 

 simply alighted on the water and could not get out, so was drowned 

 and thrown out. Frequently this happens to smaller birds, and 

 I know one place where it was a morning job to clear dead flying 

 foxes from a tank, until sticks were put in so that the wretched 

 bats could get out. — J. R. Chisholm. The Plains, Prairie (N.Q.) 



Northern Range of GcobasUcus re^uloides.—'Mr. H. G. Barnard 

 has been good enough to send for the " H. L. White Collection " 

 an example of this species from the Dawson River district, Queens- 

 land. In my " Nests and Eggs," i., p. 240, I quote Mr. Charles 

 Barnard as having observed the species nesting in the same 

 district. Mathews, in his " Reference-list " (1912), does not 

 indicate Queensland for the species, but more recently [Bull. 

 B.O.C., xl., p. 106) he describes, under the name G. r. nesa, a variety 

 from South Queensland, taken at a R.A.O.U. camp-out, and 

 states that it " differs from G. r. squamata (De Vis) in being paler 

 generally, the under surface only tinged with yellow^ and the 

 rump only being pale buff." Why does Mr. Mathews not com- 

 pare his supposed new bird with its true type instead of with a 

 more northern sub-species of which there is a doubt ? The 

 Dawson skin (o), compared with typical reguloides, has more 

 yellowish upper tail coverts, and is more yellowish than buff on 

 the under surface, notably breast and abdomen. Iris pale 

 yellow : bill and feet dark brown. If this description agrees with 

 Mr. Mathews's skin, his new name, ncsa, may be acceptable for the 

 variety. Those members interested in sub-species should read 

 " The Last Phase of Sub-Species," by L. M. Loomis, of San 

 Francisco, in The Ibis, October, 1920, pp. 964-966. — A. J. 

 Campbell. 



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Australian Bustard {Enpodotis rt?/s/w/is).— During the last few 

 years I have had splendid opportunities of studying the habits of 

 the Australian Bustard, probably better known as the Wild 

 Turkey. Seeing several notes in The Emu lately on this fine 



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