^ioV'] ^tray Feathers. 99 



Stray Feathers. 



Radiated Goshawk and Wood Duck.— On the i8th of 

 March I got a cheap duck. I had been putting horses into a 

 paddock. In the adjoining paddock there were 20 or 30 Wood 

 Ducks feeding. Suddenly they flew into the water. Looking 

 to see the cause of their alarm, I saw one Duck quacking and 

 making for the lagoon, with a Hawk running at her side and 

 holding on to her neck. She got nearly to the water and then 

 fell over. I waited till the Hawk started plucking her and then 

 went over. The Hawk flew away, and I took charge. As far as 

 I could make out it appeared to be a Radiated Goshawk. He 

 must have been a new hand at the game, for he picked a thin 

 Duck. — Ernest D. Barnard, Coomooboolaroo (Q.) 

 * * * 



In the Melbourne Zoo. — A eucalyptus tree which is 

 laden with blossom has, during the past month, been visited by 

 numbers of White-plumed Honey-eaters, Brush Wattle-Birds, 

 Sanguineous Honey-eaters, and a few Red Wattle-Birds. The 

 Wattle-Birds try to drive the smaller Honey-eaters away, and 

 when they fly at them they snap their beaks loudly, but the 

 little birds soon return. — D. Le SoueF. 15/7/02. 



TJc qp -Sir 



A Grimly Humorous Side of the Drought. — In answer 

 to the circular recently issued by the Union to members re 

 "■ observing stations " for birds, the following is one of the 

 replies : — " At present I am too much occupied among my 

 dying stock to attend to anything else, but as they will all be 

 dead ere long (unless we have sufficient rain very shortly), T 

 shall then have more leisure to attend to the movements, &c., of 

 our feathered friends." 



* * * 



Emu Park (Central Queensland) Notes. — The first 

 Gannet of the season was seen diving off the coast here on 1st 

 May. Talking Magpies (the big fellow with white spots on 

 wings) — Strepera graculina (?) — appeared about same time. 

 They fly about the bald hills during the day, and seek shelter in 

 coast scrub at night. Butcher-Birds have been making havoc 

 among Canaries at Rockhampton. One had a fly round here, 

 and killed two Canaries hanging outside near an open house 

 door. He then went for a Canary at the police station, and the 

 constable shut the door of the room he boldly entered and made 

 him prisoner, awaiting trial. Want of grasshoppers and small 

 lizards in drought make the birds fearlessly ravenous. Nankeen 

 Kestrels here in April have disappeared, starved out. Bee- 

 eaters {Merops ornatus) not so numerous as usual. On ist 

 June a party of two guns, on Hummocky Island, about 10 miles 

 off the coast, had 32 Quails. Wild Turkeys, starved off western 



