Vol. III. 

 1903 



From Magazines, &c. I ? [ 



the poisoned baits. There will not be a native insectivorous bird 

 in the district if the present wanton destruction continues. 

 Experienced farmers state that the Magpies only eat grain that 

 is on the surface, or early in the season when the shoots just come 

 through, and then only when other food is not available. This 

 district has suffered in previous seasons from locust and caterpillar 

 pests, when the native insectivorous birds proved invaluable allies 

 of the farmers. Messrs. Ingram Bros, were attracted by the 

 movements of a flock of Magpies in one of their paddocks on 

 Thursday, and on examination they discovered the birds were 

 feeding on caterpillars that had made their appearance on the 

 bare patches. — Age, 6/7/03. 



Kindly permit me to draw attention to the effect of rabbit- 

 poisoning on our feathered friends. In some cases birds pick up 

 baits, and this has led to a large decrease in the number of such 

 birds as our Water-Hens. How this destruction is to be avoided 

 at present is beside the question. 



Anyone walking over a successfully poisoned paddock must 

 have noticed numbers of birds, chiefly Magpies, Crows, and Hawks, 

 lying dead. Now, as these birds are poisoned by eating poisoned 

 rabbits, I think their destruction could and should be prevented. 

 The birds cannot reach the rabbits lying in their burrows; they 

 scavenge the land between the burrows and the water, towards 

 which phosphorus-poisoned rabbits always make. Most deaths 

 from poison occur in the first two days after baits have been laid. 

 Now, could not the farmers, in their own interest, dispose of 

 exposed carcasses by pushing them into the nearest burrows ? A 

 short time with a forked stick would rid the paddock of these 

 death-traps. 



So far as I have seen, decomposition is fairly well advanced 

 before the birds attack the carcass, so that extra work in the busy 

 part of the day need not be caused by this profitable employment. 

 -" Field Naturalist," writing in Y ackandandah Times. 



Perennial Moult and Original Feathering of Wing. — Mr. 

 Edward Degen, F.Z.S., who will be well remembered in Melbourne, 

 has contributed a technical but very important paper to the 

 Proceedings of the Zoological Society (vol. xvi., part 8, No. 1, 

 May, 1903). Its title is " Ecdysis as Morphological Evidence of 

 the Original Tetradactyle Feathering of the Bird's Fore-limb, 

 based especially on the Permanent Moult in Gymnorkina tibicen." 

 One aim of the writer is to furnish evidence of a really important 

 link in zoology. From saurian to bird always seems a long step. 

 But if Mr. Degen's contention as to the four-fingered form of the 

 original bird's wing be proved (one would surely think it was from 

 the close examination he has made of 32 specimens of one of our 

 " Magpies," and various other birds, and from the investigations 

 of other workers in this field, Professor Spencer for one, into 

 the embryological stages of a bird's wing, &c, in some of which 



