1 6 Notes. [^'"May""" 



illustrations of skulls and other bones of the different species. 

 Altogether the part forms a valuable addition to the literature of Aus- 

 tralian natural history, and is a model of painstaking investigation. 



The Emu. — The April Emu, forming the concluding part of 

 vol. ix., contains a well-illustrated article by Mr. F. L. Whitlock, 

 describing a four months' collecting trip in the East Murchison 

 district, Western Australia. It was during this trip that Mr. 

 Whitlock discovered the new honey-eater described by Mr. A. 

 J. North, C.M.Z.S., of the Australian Museum, Sydney, in the 

 January Naturalist, and a coloured plate of this bird forms an 

 excellent frontispiece to the part. The drawing is from the brush 

 of Mrs. Ellis Rowan, and has been well reproduced by Patterson, 

 Shugg and Co., and printed in colours by D. W. Paterson Co., of 

 Melbourne. The work is so good that there need be no necessity 

 to send out of the State for future illustrations of a similar 

 character, and we congratulate the A.O.U. on its enterprise. 

 The black and white plates in the part are all fine examples of 

 that style of illustration. 



Cuckoo Feeding Young. — Last Christmas Day, at about 6.45 

 p.m., I was attracted by a peculiar clattering noise outside my 

 vestry at Smythesdale. I approached the door very silently, and, 

 looking out, observed an adult Pallid Cuckoo on the fence with 

 a large white grub in its bill. The bird was making a peculiar 

 calling noise, and in a few seconds I noticed a young Cuckoo 

 fly up from the ground and perch beside the old bird, which 

 promptly transferred the grub from its own bill to the opened 

 mouth of the youngster. It would appear from this that cuckoos 

 do occasionally feed their young after they leave the nest of the 

 foster-mother. — A. John Greenwood. 



" Nardoo." — The very meagre reference to Nardoo, in an 

 article by Mr. E. J. Welch in the Australasian oi 12th February, 

 under the heading of "The Explorer — Dietary Experiences," 

 increased the doubt which already existed in certain quarters 

 as to whether the plant Marsilea quadrifolia, Lin., to be found 

 in swampy places near Melbourne, was the true Nardoo plant, the 

 spores of which were reputed to have been used by King, of the 

 Burke and Wills expedition, when stranded at Cooper's Creek in 

 the early sixties. As Mr. Welch was a member of the Howitt 

 relief party, he was communicated with, and distinctly asserts the 

 identity of the Marsilea with Nardoo. In his article he states 

 that fish were plentiful at Cooper's Creek, also pigeons, bush- 

 rats, mussels, and " yabbies," but the returned explorers were 

 too weak to secure these different items, and had to be content 

 with Nardoo spores, and " Nardoo alone meant a lingering fight 

 with death." It is to be hoi)ed that the plant produces spores 

 more abundantly in the latitude of Cooper's Creek, for, from 

 experience near Melbourne, to get enough spores to fill a tea cup 

 would appear to be an insuperable task. 



