^°mi^^] State Secretaries' Reports. 231 



Blue Wren-Warblers Roosting High. — Returning one after- 

 noon (October, 1<)1*J) from a ramble in the bush, 1 passed 

 through a j)atch of bracken which is always the haunt of a 

 family of Blue Wren-Warblers {Malurus cyanciis). It was 

 just after sunset, and I paused — as always — ^to watch the busy 

 little creatures hopping about on the fallen timber. A tall 

 stringy-bark tree grew on the edge of the bracken-patch. It 

 went up straight quite 25 feet without a branch, and at the end 

 of the first branch grew a large bunch of mistletoe (Loraiithiis), 

 quite 30 feet from the ground. Whilst I watched the Wrens 

 the little blue male sudclenly fiew to this big tree, and clinging 

 sideways to the rough bark of the trunk, and (looking like a 

 little jewel) began calling to his family in imperious tcjucs till 

 all the little brown birds came fluttering out of the bracken. 

 Then one after the other, led by the little blue male, they all 

 hopped up the rough bark of the tree, like miniature Tree- 

 Creepers, until, coming opposite the pendant bunch of mistletoe, 

 they fluttered across the intervening space into it and all dis- 

 appeared amongst its thick leaves, evidently settling down there 

 for the night, as they appeared no more that evening. 



I have never seen Wrens climb up a tree like this before, 

 though others may have done so. Their small round wings 

 could scarcely carry them so high in a single flight, or else the 

 exertion was more than they cared to undertake, so they took 

 advantage of the rough-barked trunk as a stairway to their 

 aerial bedroom.— (Mrs.) S. P. W. Norton, R.A.O.U., Tam- 

 worth. N.S.W. 



State Secretaries' Reports 



QUEENSLAND. 



On 27th October, when some other States were preparing for 

 the annual celebration of Bird Day, Queensland was doing its 

 part by passing through its Parliament a modern and efficient 

 measure for the protection of native fauna. This is the most im- 

 portant development of recent years in the movement for the 

 preservation of the birds and animals of the tropics and sub- 

 tropics, many of which are unique and wonderful. _ It is also a 

 development that has taken a good deal of organising. Birds 

 have no votes, and the unfortunate fact is that there are still 

 some politicians who measure their value accordingly. 



Queensland's present bird protection legislation is antiquated. 

 Back in the good year 1877 it dawned on some perceptive citizens 

 that "native birds are disappearing rapidly from some of the 

 districts of this colony, and it is expedient to protect them and 

 their progeny"; wherefor, the first Native Birds Protection Act 

 came into being. Seven years later the Act was reinforced with 

 provision for the establishment of sanctuaries for native game. 

 Nothing had been added to or taken away from this legislation 



