Vol. XVI I. J Sir ay Feathers. 235 



forty minutes' watching through glasses from a distant and 

 partly-concealed position, the bird was eventually marked down 

 to a spot on the sand some 15 or 20 yards up and in from the sea. 

 This spot was only reached after the most circuitous and deliberate 

 wandering on the part of the bird, with long pauses, punctuated 

 by occasional jerking and bowing of the body. There were no 

 landmarks in the shape of driftwood or weed by which to identify 

 the situation amongst the rolling, sandy ridges ; but, as far as 

 could be definitely ascertained without rising, the bird had 

 settled down into a sitting posture. Before many minutes, a second 

 bird (the female), who had not previously been seen, arrived on 

 the wing, and alighted on the sand a short distance from the 

 male, who immediately rose, flew towards the sea, and re- 

 commenced peregrinating near the water's edge. The last- 

 comer, meanwhile, after a short run, shuffled down on the sand, 

 though not exactly where the male had been sitting. On reaching 

 the site two eggs were found, but they were 3 feet apart, one of 

 the two being more elongated and less pyriform than the other. 

 Both the eggs were in an advanced stage of incubation. Were 

 these eggs, evidently the product of this one pair of Hooded 

 Dottrels, ever lying together side by side ? The sand-ridges 

 were sufficiently undulating to obviate separation by the force 

 of the wind, and the possibility of human interference may be 

 neglected, the locality being utterly isolated and unfrequented. — 

 Henry L. Cochrane, M.B.O.U., Captain R.N. Melbourne, 



19/11/17. 



* * * 



New Cuckoo Foster-Parent. — Last September, at Raak Plains, 

 N.W. Victoria, in company with Mr. A. W. Milligan, I found a 

 nest of Amytis stnatiis [howei) containing an egg of the Amytis 

 with one of the Narrow-billed Bronze-Cuckoo [Chalcococcyx 

 basalts). This Amytis has not, I think, been previously recorded 

 as a foster-parent of C. basalts. The new set is now incorporated 

 in Mr. H. L. White's oological collection. — F. Erasmus Wilson. 

 Melbourne, 20/12/17. 



Bee- eaters : Do They Migrate ? — In reference to Mathews- 

 Campbell correspondence about the Australian Bee-eater, owing 

 to my extensive field ornithology in South Australia and the 

 central regions, I can say for certain that the Merops found in 

 South Australia does not migrate to the New Guinea Archipelago, 

 but only shifts about according to food supply. — S. A. White. 

 " Wetunga," Fulham (S.A.), 9/2/18. 



A Swallow Tragedy. — A pair of Swallows {Hiriindo neoxena) 

 used to come yearly and rear their brood in our verandah. One 

 season, after the incubation had commenced, I noticed, although 



