60 stray Feathers. U^J^Xy 



Bird Life in the North. — Mr. A. J. Dyer, who is a missionary 

 at the ( liurch of England mission on the Roper River, Northern 

 Territory, in a letter to Mr. G. A. Dyer, R.A.O.U., of North 

 Fitzroy (Vic), gives interesting notes on bird -life. He writes : — 



" Once, I think, I said not many birds were here. But that 

 was in the dry season ; in the wet, one sees so many birds which 

 are new to one that one quite loses count of them, and some of 

 them are beautiful birds, too. We have a great variety of the 

 Finch family not described in Dr. Leach's book. You ask re 

 Summer-Birds. On 14th December last (1915) I saw a flock of 

 them — I am pretty sure of about 100 birds. They camped on a 

 billabong at the back of the mission station, and since then I have 

 not seen any. Grass-Parrots returned here in hundreds on the 

 25th March. Grass-seeds are just falling here now. No Rosellas 

 are here, only King Parrots and Rose -breasted Cockatoos. 

 Hawks are returning now, and most of the birds are nesting. 

 They go away into the bush, and we do not see much of them. 

 All the game birds are away now, mostly at the salt water, the 

 natives tell me. We had a visit from a naturalist in a cutter. 

 He called for food, as the natives had stolen his on the King River, 

 on the north coast ; he was right out of flour. He had some lovely 

 birds, mostly from the mangroves by the river. He has been in 

 places where no whites have been before. The country there was 

 mostly poor. He started from Thursday Island, sent out by Mr. 

 White, of New South Wales, to get eggs and so forth. M'Lennan 

 is his name. He is a gifted nature student, and has a wonderful 

 collection of bird skins. At present he is at a rookery of Egrets, 

 where there are thousands of birds of various kinds, such as 

 White-fronted Herons, White-necked Herons, and the Great 

 Plumed and Lesser Egrets. To get to them you have to wade out 

 of the boat in about four feet of water, with a revolver in one 

 hand and with a man behind with a rifle, as crocodiles are there 

 in galore, and poke their noses up quite near them. You then 

 let them have one ; then your foot goes down on a big catfish, 

 for they are there for the young ones. The nests are so thick 

 that one parent throws out the young ones from other nests. If 

 old enough, they climb up the trees again with legs and beak. 

 The noise is deafening. Fancy three native boys eating 100 eggs 

 for tea, and not at all particular about the young ones ! I am 

 afraid that they are not members of the Gould League of Bird 

 Lovers." 



Birds at Cape Otway Lighthouse, 1849 to 1879. — The Cape Otway 

 lighthouse opened about the end of 1848, and my father took 

 charge shortly afterwards. The first birds recorded as striking 

 the light were Black Swans [Chenopis airata), early in 1849 : they 

 came from the south-east, apparently from King Island. The 

 leading bird struck the lantern, breaking the half-inch plate-glass 

 window, and was killed by the concussion. The next bird came 



