Vol. III. 

 1904 



Stray Feathers. I <^ 7 



Wedge-tailed EAGLES {Uroactus audax). — Hearing that these 

 birds were unusually numerous in the Hughenden district (N.Q.), 

 I wrote for information to Mr. J. H. Frith, of Hughenden station, 

 who kindly gave me the following details. In eight months of 

 this year they had poisoned one thousand and sixty (1,060) 

 Eagles ; at one lamb he had known as many as 1 2 or 1 4 to be 

 poisoned. Poisoning an already poisoned dingo one morning, 

 he gathered eighteen dead Eagles from about it in the afternoon. 

 I do not think it is any exaggeration to say that Hughenden 

 station alone must have lost some thousands of lambs by Eagles 

 this year. — Fred. L. Berney. Richmond (N.Q.), 30/10/03. 



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Regent-Birds. — I have just had an opportunity of handling a 

 pair of Regent-Birds (Sericulus melinus) in the flesh. They were 

 obtained by Mr. W. L. May on the Blackall Range, Queensland, 

 preserved in formalin, and then forwarded for stuffing by post. 

 The colour of the eye struck me as interesting. The male has a 

 light yellow iris and the female a dark brown. It is probable 

 that the yellow of the male is a rich orange, and has faded in the 

 formalin. The birds have soft gizzards and were full of a 

 substance which resembled a fruit pulp, with a large proportion 

 of small black seeds with hard coverings. I am not able to 

 identify the seeds by their appearance, so purpose planting them 

 to see if they will grow.— CLIFFORD COLES. Melbourne, 1 3/ 1 0/03 . 

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Devotion of a Black and White Fantail. — My friend, Miss 

 Hood, of Merrang, Hexham, Victoria, found the nest of the 

 Black' and White Fantail (Rhipidiira tricolor) built on the branch 

 of a willow tree, which had been covered by flood waters. 

 She was surprised to find in the nest the skeleton forms of three 

 little ones, all with their heads in an upright position and their 

 mouths wide open, and standing over them was the dried-up 

 form of their devoted mother, with her wings outspread and her 

 feet holding on to the edge of the nest. She had evidently died 

 endeavouring to protect her young from the overwhelming 

 flood, and such an act of devotion well deserves recording. The 

 sketch is from a drawing made by Miss Hood at the time.— 



D. Le Souef. 



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Crafty CROWS. — Crows are crafty and intelligent birds, 

 especially those individuals which forage around homesteads, 

 but few would give them credit for sagacity similar to that 

 shown by dogs in burying food for future use. For two years 

 past I was puzzled to account for the number of eggs of the 

 domestic fowl and duck that I and others found about the 

 cultivation paddocks buried to the general level of the surrounding 

 land, and in most cases neatly covered with earth. Sometimes 

 the rain would wash away the covering and leave the egg exposed ; 

 at other times the egg would be revealed by being trodden upon. 



