128 stray Feathers. [^nf"^"! 



with him. He got the Commissioner to agree to the leasing of 

 the islands by the Association. Captain S. A. White, of the 

 Reedbeds, S.A., has been making strenuous efforts for the last 

 twelve months to secure legislation for the protection of the 

 Pelicans and to prevent the so-called aborigines from robbing 

 the nests of Black Swans and Pelicans. The name of the R.A.O.U. 

 has been used in urging such legislation. 



When in South Australia last July I spent a week on the 

 Coorong, and visited Pelican and Jack's Point Islands. On both 

 islands there were hundreds of old Pelicans' nests, and on Jack's 

 Point Island the birds were commencing to lay. Forty-two nests 

 contained eggs (full clutch of two in most instances). On Pelican 

 Island two fresh eggs (broken open and the contents eaten by 

 Crows) were found. Lying about the island were the headless 

 bodies of a number of Pelicans, evidently victims of the massacre 

 of igio. During my wanderings among the islands and along 

 the lake shore I observed not more than 300 or 400 Pelicans. 

 Before the slaughter which aroused such indignation among bird- 

 lovers of the Commonwealth there must have been thousands of 

 these birds on the Coorong. The island rookeries will now, thanks 

 to the efforts of the South Australian Ornithological Association, 

 be less liable to receive visits from bird-killers and egg-robbers ; 

 but the Coorong is a wild, lonely lake, and it will be difficult to 

 enforce the laws of sanctuary. — Charles Barrett. Melbourne. 



From Magazines, &c. 



Another Great Kingfisher. — At the monthly meeting of the 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales, held 31/5/11, Mr. A. J. 

 North exhibited an example of a small race of the Great Brown 

 Kingfisher [Dacelo gigas) from the Jardine River, Cape York 

 Peninsula, which he proposed to distinguish as a new sub-species, 

 naming it Dacelo maclennani (M'Lennan Kingfisher), after Mr. J. 

 M'Lennan, collector for Dr. Wm. Macgillivray.='= The bird is 

 said to bear a similar relation to D. gigas as the Fawn-breasted 

 Kingfisher (Z). cervina) does to D. leachii. 

 * * * 



Blue " Budgerigar." — In the Avicultural Magazine (May and June, 

 itjii), Mr. D. Seth-Smith, F.Z.S., deals interestingly with the 

 keeping and breeding of Parrakeets in captivity. Taken as a tribe, 

 Mr. Seth-Smith states, these birds, as a whole. " are hardy, easy to 

 keep, and very showy." He cites an instance of an extremely 

 rare and beautiful variety of blue Warbling Grass-Parrakeet, 

 or " Budgerigar " {Melopsittaciis undnlatiis). Mons. Pauwels, a 

 Belgian aviculturist, exhibited a pair in London last year. In 

 this variety the yellow pigment was absent, the bird being of a 

 most beautiful blue, with a pure white face and ]:)lack bars over 

 the back. 



* See Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, vol. xxii., part 7 (July, 

 191 1), p. 609. 



