48 Bernev, Ornithulogist in Egypl and Palestine. \^^^f' 



July 



" falooka "), with its three-cornered sail carried on a 40-foot 

 sky-scraping spar, the native crew of six or seven, and the mixed 

 catch of all sorts of marine wonders. Between the trips I wandered 

 along the beach or among the salt marshes, in search of bird-life. 

 No birds appear to be nesting now. 



How jolly it will be to get back to civilization again — to clean 

 sheets and decent living ! Not that I regret coming ; I do not — 

 far from it. I should have regretted in years to come not having 

 done so. My experiences and the things I have seen have amply 

 repaid me. 



I hope my letter has better luck than C. Barrett's, in which, 

 5'ou will remember, the censor deleted all the scientific names of 

 the birds he mentioned ! 



A Dipterous Parasite of Nestling Birds. 



By p. a. Gilbert, R.A.O.U., Lakemba, N.S.W. 



Our hon. librarian, Mr. W. B. Alexander, in his review of recent 

 acquisitions to the R.A.O.U. library, mentions on page 321 of 

 vol. xviii. (April, 1919) the receipt of a paper entitled " Parasitism 

 of Nesthng Birds by Fly Larvae," O. E. Plath, Condor, vol. xxi., 

 page 30, with the following comments : — " The author finds that 

 in America a considerable proportion of Passerine birds are subject 

 as nestlings to the attacks of larvae of a fly, which suck their 

 blood. . . The attacks of the fly larvae result in a considerable 

 mortality amongst the nestlings. Do Australian birds suffer in 

 this way ? " 



I have been collecting data on a fly parasite for several years 

 past, but, as the hosts located have been few and far between, 

 my progress has necessarily been very slow ; but since the question 

 has been put by Mr. Alexander I thought an effort to answer his 

 query would not be out of place. 



My field observations have been intermittent, a week or a 

 fortnight elapsing between visits to any hosts that I had found ; 

 hence a good deal of information was lost in not being able to 

 make daily investigations. However, as a first instalment, subject 

 to modification with more extensive inquiry, I herewith give my 

 researches to date. 



From four species of our l)irds I have collected maggots, and 

 bred them out, which all proved to be identical. The birds thus 

 attacked were : — 



Lyre-Bird {Meniira siipcyba), 13/8/1911. — One young bird, about 

 two weeks old, with 17 maggots studded over the lateral and 

 ventral portions of the body. 



White-cheeked Honey-eater {Meliornis sericca), 14/3/13. — Two 

 young, about a week old, one with three and one with two maggots ; 

 both had them on the ventral surface of the body. 



