^''';<^o'^■] stale Secretaries' Rcpurls. 243 



Mr. .Chisholm addressed lantern lectures to i.ooo children, drawn 

 from eight schools, (iood reports are also to hand from the Central 

 and Northern districts. The head teacher of the Gracemere 

 (Rockhampton) school advises that Mr. F. L. Berney, R.A.O.U., 

 visited his school on Bird Day, and that the children were " much 

 taken with both the subject and the lecturer." Further north, 

 at Mackay, Mr. F. M. Cornwall kept the bird-lovers' Hag flying 

 bravely. Following a series of lectures throughout the district, 

 he spoke to crowded audiences on 22nd October and on the night 

 of Bird Day itself, concluding by offering the children of the 

 district a prize for the best essay dealing with the value and 

 interest of native birds. 



Mention should again be made of the line work l)i'ing done in 

 the interests of native birds by the Central Queensland Native 

 Birds Protection Association, of Rockhampton. This body (a 

 member of the R.A.O.U.) is composed of sportsmen rather than 

 ornithologists — sportsmen who champion the claims of game 

 birds to immunity in the breeding season, and recognize the right 

 Qi most other birds to be totally protected. When the dose 

 season for the Northern (No. 2) district commenced, on the first 

 day of November, an advertisement was inserted in the Rock- 

 hampton press above the name of the hon. secretary of the 

 association (Mr. P. V. Maloney) notifying the fact, and intimating 

 that " any person caught interfering with protected birds " would 

 be prosecuted. Nor is this an idle warning, for the Association 

 has on several occasions successfully prosecuted offenders under 

 the Bird Protection Acts. A leading article appeared in the 

 Rockhampton Morning Bulletin supporting the work of the 

 Association, and this was seconded by a letter written on behalf 

 of the R.A.O.U. 



Membership of the R.A.O.U. in Queensland has been con- 

 siderably added to during the past few months ; this despite the 

 handicap of vast distances, the maritime strike, and the outbreak 

 of influenza. The shipping dislocation isolated Mr. E. J. Banfield 

 (" The Beachcomber") on his tropic isle for some time, and the 

 epidemic caught several members in its clutches. In addition, 

 Mr. F. L. Berney has been suffering somewhat severely from 

 illness recurrent from his trying experiences with the A.I.F. in 

 Palestine, and Mr. J. O'Neil Brenan, R.A.O.U., has also been an 

 inmate of a private hospital for several weeks. All are well at 

 time of writing. Mr. E. R. Caldwell, R.A.O.U., who made some 

 valuable notes during his summer residence on a station inland 

 from Cairns, is now among the birds of south-western Queensland. 



A. H. Chisholm, 



State Secretary. 



The Swift Parrot {Lathamus discolor). ~'n\\<, bird was, owing to 

 its varied notes, commonly named the " Talking 'Keet " by boys 

 30 years ago. — C. F. Coles, R.A.O.U. Wangaratta. 



