250 stray Feathers. [JX^w 



there appears the name Petroeca pha'nicea. But it is remark- 

 able that no further mention was made in the body of this report, 

 since this is one of the earliest records we have of the species 

 being found in summer on the mainland of Australia. This 

 season I am able to verify this record. In a monograph on the 

 Flame-breasted Robin (see TJie Emu, vol. viii., p. 122) I stated 

 that after three seasons' personal acquaintance with the 

 Grampians, I considered the early record " not proven," but 

 now, the fourth season, I have had the pleasure of examining 

 two nests in the month of October, and of noting several pairs 

 of birds about the mountains. It was on 9th October, 1909, in 

 the Stony Creek valley, and at an elevation of 1,640 feet above 

 sea level, that the first pair were seen, the male attracting atten- 

 tion by his persistent song. After some search a nest was 

 discovered in the hollow elbow of a gum-tree, newly built and 

 ready for eggs. On the 12th October, further up the valley, on 

 the old gold diggings (elevation 1,750 feet), a male bird was 

 observed feeding, and, again, on the i8th October, on another 

 portion of the range, a nest containing three eggs was found in 

 a bole of a dead tree. In this case a remarkable circumstance 

 pertaining to the pair was that the male bird was apparently 

 in immature plumage. On the same day a Robin was observed 

 among the rocks of an adjacent peak, altitude 3,000 feet. 

 Although the species was not plentiful, yet the records in these 

 four different localities above 1,000 feet elevation come with 

 added interest when I remember that three of these localities at 

 any rate have been visited during past summers with the express 

 purpose of verifying the presence of Flame-breasted Robins, but 

 without success. I have stayed several times at a hut under 

 the slopes of Mt. Redman, but not until this season have I seen 

 Robins about ; the nest referred to containing eggs being 

 within a stone's throw of the door. The inference, then, is that 

 the Flame-breasted Robins do not stay every year to breed 

 upon these mountains. But, of course, this will be an interest- 

 ing matter for future observation. — A. G. Campbell. Pomonal 

 (Vic), December, 1909. 



Occurrence of the King Penguin in Tasmania. — In 

 the October number of The Einu"^ Mr. Conigrave records the 

 Crested Penguin {Catarrhactes) as having recently strayed as 

 far north as Rottnest Island, Western Australia. In December 

 last a King Penguin {Aptenodytcs patagonica) was killed by 

 fishermen on the ocean beach of Maria Island, on the east coast 

 of Tasmania. This may only be recorded as a stray or 

 occasional (rare) visitor. As it should have been breeding in 

 the islands of Antarctic waters (Dec-Jan.), the Penguin most 



* Vol. ix., part 2, p. 92 (1909). 



