58 



Stray Feathers-. 



July 



a big rookery, like those on the Macquarie Islands, where some- 

 times over 1,000,000 birds are congregated in one locality for 

 the purpose of moulting. — W. H. D. Le Souef. Zoological 

 Gardens, Melbourne, 2/6/16. 



Lrestetl Penjjuin's Mouhiiig Place. 



FROM A PHOTO. BY 



LE SOUEF. C.M.Z.S.. R.A.O. 



Late Stay of Migrants.— Although the majority of the Pipits 

 {Anthiis australis) left us, as usual, in April, there is still a small 

 number about the grassy patches by the wayside. As one 

 approaches they rise and fly over the fence into the paddocks, 

 uttering their peculiar sibilant note while on the wing. They 

 are, I believe, young birds of early summer, and appear to be in 

 excellent condition. The few that winter with us seem to pick 

 up a good living. The last Summer-Bird {Graticalus parvirostris) 

 which came within my ken was sitting on an electric wire in the 

 town on nth May, but two or three were reported from the Don 

 (in this district) on 23rd inst. Small parties of this species passed 

 here several times during April, resting for a httle while in the 

 gum-trees about my place ; all were heading to the westward, 

 and evidently on migration. A Fan -tailed Cuckoo {Cacomantis 

 flabelliformis) was whistling melodiously from a wooded piece of 

 gromid on 29th inst., and this morning I caught sight of it. It 

 used the soft whistling call, not the trill, although two seasons 



