244 ^^^'^y Feathers. LlTprW 



of Moolawatana station. Moolawatana station is approximately 

 500 miles north from Adelaide and 100 miles west from the New 

 South Wales border. This locality is not milike that where the 

 type clutch was taken, being not much more than 20 miles to the 

 westward. The country in the vicinity of the nest was in wonder- 

 fully good heart, green grass and herbage being plentiful, amongst 

 which a plentiful supply of insect life was to be found. The nest 

 was made of dry twigs of salt-bush, and rootlets, lined with rootlets, 

 measuring over all, in diameter, five inches, the egg cavity being 

 3 inches by if inches in depth. The nest was placed in a 

 depression in the ground, partly under and on east side of a green 

 annual bladder salt-bush, and the eastern side of rim of nest was 

 extended to form a platform projecting out from the nest circle 

 fully I inch ; this projection was not measured when over-all 

 diameter was obtained. This platform was fully i inch above 

 ground surface, and also level with the rim of nest. When the 

 nest was carefully lifted from depression a small quantity of dried 

 flower-pods were noted in bottom of hole, which was 3J inches 

 in depth by 4;^ inches in diameter. The female bird was flushed 

 from the nest by the motor-car passing within 5 feet of nest. 

 The bird pretended injury to draw attention from the nest. The 

 eggs were about one-third incubated, and of even incubation. 

 One of the set of eggs was much lighter in ground colour than 

 the rest of the clutch. This, I beUeve, is the first record of this 

 bird laying four in a setting. In good seasons three eggs are 

 usually found, but in normal years two eggs are as often found 

 as three. In bad seasons one rai-ely notes more than two to the 

 clutch.— J. Neil M'Gilp, R.A.O.U. " Origma," King's Park, 

 S.A., 24/2/21. 



The "Mutton-Bird" Pilgrimage. — Respecting the annual 

 southward pilgrimage of the " ^Mutton-Bird " (Short-tailed Petrel), 

 I have, on occasion, when schnapper fishing from rocks on the 

 South Coast between Bermagui and Tathra, watched these birds 

 passing all day in an apparently endless stream, about a mile 

 out from the shore. The stream, however, is at times intersected 

 by gaps, which, I think, are eventually filled up. Then, as Mr. 

 Basset Hull says, the dead bodies of derelict Mutton-Birds are 

 found strewn along the shore. These, however, are not always 

 in low bodily condition, and, though most bear no external marks 

 of injury, some are gashed and torn — probably by barracouta, * 

 sharks, or other carnivorous fishes. These birds may have died, 

 not from starvation, but from the injuries thus inflicted. I have 

 at times used flesh from the breasts of these derelicts as bait for 

 flathead and mullet, and there was a fair quantity of it on the 

 bones. It may be that some of the pilgrims, feehng the necessity 

 for rest and refreshment, alight for a time on the water, and may 

 then fall victims to ravenous fishes. The injuries which the 

 bodies of some bear need not necessarily have been done after 



