Emu 



200 From Magazines, &-c. [ist"^"} 



being about 40 miles distant, and the country to the south and 

 west being much the same accounted for the Cockatoos taking 

 such heavy toll of Mr. Muir's crops. 



" The breeding season commences apparently in September, 

 continuing through October, when the young are mostly hatched. 

 Two or three eggs is the usual clutch, and the nesting cavity is 

 almost invariably in the ends of hollow limbs or in the main stem 

 of large living red gum trees [Eucalyptus calophyUa). Ring-barked 

 trees [i.e., trees purposely killed by the axe) were not chosen for 

 nesting-sites, neither were the jarrah trees, which were more 

 numerous than red gums and grew along with them. 



" Several nesting-cavities came under my notice, evidently 

 containing young birds, but all were in inaccessible situations 

 (to me), and the station hands were too busy harvesting to spare 

 the time to fell one of the giant trees. One hole was shown me, 

 about 30 feet only from the ground, in the trunk of a very large 

 red-gum, where a brood had been reared for three consecutive 

 years. Apparently the young birds remain in the nesting-place 

 until they are strong on the wing, as Mr. F. Muir said that he and 

 some of his men had several times cut down a tree to obtain 

 youngsters, and just as the tree was falling they had emerged 

 and flown strongly away. One nest, from which a parent bird had 

 been observed to fly on different occasions, was placed in a tall 

 green {i.e., living) red gum, surrounded on all sides by acres of 

 gaunt dead trees. The sitting birds leave the nests rather wildly, 

 and do not readily return. 



" At the earliest signs of dawn, long before sunrise, the 

 Cockatoos are on the wing, and are very noisy and restless 

 throughout the day, feeding at all hours. On one occasion only 

 did I see them show any degree of tameness. I was engaged in 

 examining the old nest of a Shieldrake, which was placed about 

 25 feet from the ground in the hollow limb of a yate (eucalypt) 

 tree, when two Cockatoos perched in the upper branches and 

 exhibited great curiosity as to my doings. The tree was growing 

 on the edge of the corn-crop, and doubtless the birds had settled 

 in it, preparatory to a feed cf corn, before they noticed my 

 presence." 



Member of the R.A.O.U. Honoured.— Mr. D. Le Souef, C.M.Z.S., 

 Director of the Zoological Gardens, Melbourne, has been elected 

 a Corresponding Member of the New York Zoological Society. 

 Mr. Le Souef is the first citizen of the Commonwealth thus 

 distinguished. 



The R.A.O.U. Honours.— Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, U.S. Army, retired, 

 Fellow A.O.U., C.M.Z.S., &c., contributor to Newton's " Dictionary 

 of Birds," author of " Myology of the Raven " and numerous 

 papers on avian osteology ^^ andMr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, chief of 

 the Bird Department, British Museum, have been elected honorary 

 members of the R.A.O.U. 



