Vol. XVII. 

 1917 



1 Alexander, While-winged Black Terns in W.A. (\y 



north of Perth. He adds : — "I remember having seen the birds 

 for several successive winters on the Upper Nile a few years ago, 

 but, not knowing that they were not familiar to this country, I 

 did not attach much importance to the matter." 



Mrs. C. L. Johns, of South Doodlakine (120 miles E.N.E. of. 

 Perth), writes that the birds were there for a day or two about 

 the middle of March, and then disappeared. " There is a chain 

 of lakes, or rather swamps, about 4 or 5 miles away, and there is 

 a large creek in our property which was running a banker." 



Mrs. J. I. Rutland, of Bull's Brook (about 20 miles N.N.E. of 

 Perth), saw the birds in great numbers a week previous to Easter. 

 " Some of them flew away south without resting here, whereas about 

 50 hovered about for two or three days, living on the dragon-flies." 



Mr. H. W. Gibbs, of Coolup (55 miles south of Perth), says that 

 a large number of the birds were hovering over and around a 

 swamp on his property, and spent most of the time in pursuit of 

 flying insects. 



Mr. J. F. Johnston, of Bunbury (a seaport 90 miles south of 

 Fremantle), says that they were noticed first there on Easter 

 Monday, and were in thousands. Numbers of them were hovering 

 about over his lucerne patch, and there were large numbers on 

 the Leschenault Estuary. Mr. H. W. Gibbs and Mr. C. L. 

 Clarke also report numbers of them on the estuary at Bunbury. 



Mr. P. L. Reynolds wrote that there were several hundreds 

 flying about the estuaries and fields in the neighbourhood of 

 Busselton (a seaport about 30 miles S.S.W. of Bunbury), and 

 that they appeared there about Easter. 



A specimen was also sent to the Museum from Balingup 

 (125 miles south of Perth and 35 mfles inland from Busselton), 

 where it was picked up in a paddock. 



The foregoing letters point to the birds having arrived over- 

 land from the north-east, and not along the coast, as might have 

 been anticipated. They seem to have reached Doodlakine in the 

 middle of March. They were seen at Bull's Brook before Easter, 

 but they appear only to have reached the coast on Easter Sunday, 

 as the result of the strong easterly wind on the previous day. At 

 the risk of wearying my readers, I have set out all the observations 

 I have been able to collect — firstly, because no field-notes on the 

 habits of these birds in Australia have been published previously, 

 and secondly, because a visitation of a species of bird in such 

 very large numbers in a locality over a thousand miles from the 

 nearest point at which it had been previously seen must be 

 almost unprecedented. It seems quite clear that the total 

 number of birds in the area between Moora and Balingup, 

 225 miles apart, must have been many thousands. Practically 

 every swamp and estuary all along the coast-line seems to have 

 had its quota. It has been stated already that their chief food 

 seems to have been the dragon-flies {Hemianax papuensis). These 

 insects were in millions throughout the district at the time, and 

 it has been suggested to me that the birds followed them. I do 



