Vol. IX. 

 1909 



J .S/my Feathers. 4 1 



paid to the locality, and on approaching the place steathily a 

 rustle was heard and a " plomp," the rings on the water telling 

 that the bird had again dived out of sight, but on reappearing 

 it proved, as I had supposed, to be a female Blue-billed Duck 

 [Erisntatura australis), a rare species, and thus cleared up the 

 identity of the nest and eggs. This is the first clutch of the 

 Blue-billed Duck's eggs I have taken. From here a long tramp 

 was commenced into the thick Mallee scrub, and it was late in 

 the day before my wife and self reached the home of the Mallee- 

 Hen {Lipoa). After some time we discovered an egg-mound 

 lately covered up. An examination of the ground for some 

 distance in every direction revealed the numerous tracks of 

 foxes, and there is no doubt that these animals not only dig out 

 the eggs but lie in wait for the unfortunate birds, as the feathers 

 in the vicinity only too plainly showed. There is not a shadow 

 of doubt that the extermination of these quaint birds will take 

 place within a few years. After a very hard journey (the latter 

 part in the dark), we reached our camp exceedingly tired. The 

 following day found me rowing up stream on the return journey 

 to Murray Bridge — a tough job, for our boat was heavy and well 

 laden, while the stream ran strongly against us. But what cared 

 we for that ; we had had a very profitable trip both as regards 

 specimens collected and observations made. — (Capt.) S. A. 

 White. Fulham, S.A. 



The Pilot-Bird (Pycnoptilus floccosus).* — The township 

 of Ferntree Gully (about 22 miles due east of Melbourne) is 

 situated at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges, and the gully 

 itself is reached after a few minutes' walk. The creek is 

 confined between rather low and heavily timbered ranges, and 

 is fringed with a scrub of wire-grass {EJirJiata), sword -grass 

 {Lepidospertna) , and native hop [GoodeJtia ovata). A second 

 growth of sassafras, hazel, and musk is surmounted by very tall 

 timber, so that one can readily imagine its density. Here in the 

 shadowed obscurity is the home of this terrestial and silver- 

 throated form. As I mentioned elsewhere, the bird is very 

 plentiful, but one needs patience to obtain sight of it. During 

 the seasons of 1907-8 a good deal of time was spent with this 

 bird, and I have been enabled to correct many wrong impressions 

 and to add new facts of its domestic economy. For instance, 

 the call note, " Guinea-a-week," is only used by the male, and 

 the female responds quickly (like the female of Psophodes), 

 " Qui-wit-tui-wit-tee," and a perceptible pause is noticed between 

 the second and third syllables, the last note being considerably 

 higher. We have observed, too, that the birds are local to an 

 extraordinary degree, and after marking down a pair one can 



* Supplementary to " Observations " in 7he Emu, vi., p. 183. 



