194 Stray Feathers. [.sfTan 



noticeable fact is the great number of clutches of eggs that are 

 being destroyed. I think that the unusual amount of rain has 

 flooded out the snakes earlier than usual, and the birds, being later 

 in nesting, are suffering. Our swamps also are a great resort of 

 golden-bellied water-rats, and their footprints may often be traced 

 near nests, in which the animals occasionally curl up to sleep, no 

 doubt after supping off the contents. 



Most of the Lewin Rails {Hypotcenidia hrachypiis) appear to have 

 taken a season's freedom from family cares, or else they have 

 migrated, for their nests are seldom found. In fact, this season 

 I have discovered only two, each containing four eggs, and two 

 with egg-shells. The nests with unhatched eggs I watched in 

 the hope of obtaining photographs of young birds, but they 

 appeared on wet days. 



The Spotless Crakes {Porzana immacitlata) have also been very 

 dilatory, though most of the clutches have been exceptionally 

 large, doubtless the favourable season for these birds ensuring 

 an abundant food supply. In the two seasons during which I 

 have been studying these birds the average clutch has been three 

 eggs, occasionally four. Last year, on account of the drought, 

 I found several birds sitting on two eggs. Early in November, 

 1915, I found one of the " two-set " Crakes sitting on a clutch 

 of six eggs, and still later another clutch of six came under my 

 notice. In this latter, strange to say, one of the eggs was twice 

 the size of the others, being probably double-yolked. This spring 

 I have also found several nests of this Crake containing five eggs, 

 on which the bird was sitting. These observations show that a 

 hard and fast rule cannot be laid down with regard to the number 

 of eggs to a clutch in the case of these birds, which are dej^endent 

 on the rain -fed swamps. 



It is worth recording that twice I have seen a four-clutch of 

 Emu-Wren {Stipiturus malachunis) eggs — namely, on the 8th 

 November. 1913, and on 7th December, 1914. The two clutches 

 did not belong to the same pair of birds. — (Miss) J. A. Fletcher. 

 Springfield (Tas.), 20/11/ 15. 



Cormorants in Tasmania. — Tasmania, with its many fresh- 

 water lakes, marshy lagoons, and quiet streams, its broad 

 estuaries and secluded bays, teeming with food supplies, offers 

 special attractions to the family of Phalacrocoracidae. Yet, 

 notwithstanding these advantages, the birds, with the exception 

 of P. carbo and P. leiicogaster, are by no means so numerous as 

 is generally believed. 



In the quiet lagoons and inland streams, lonely, secluded, and 

 far from the usual haunts of man, one occasionally comes across 

 a company of four or five Little Black Cormorants (P. siilcirostris) 

 quietly engaged in procuring a meal ; and on the lakes, in company 

 with P. carbo, the birds may also be found, but never in very great 

 numbers. Rarely indeed are the birds seen near the sea-coast — 



