58 stray Feathers. [, 



Emu 

 A July 



instant when following us, she invariably sprang up on to some 

 stump or tree nearest to hand, and it had occurred to me that we 

 could gain advantage from this habit. I had not explained all 

 this to Mr. Chandler, hence his hesitation. When all was ready I 

 went to the nest to make the young bird call, and when the female 

 appeared proceeded slowly right between the camera and the 

 stump (fern), the bird following in my footsteps, about 12 paces 

 behind. When she was between the camera and the stump I stopped, 

 and she followed suit. Presently, as was her usual habit, she 

 began scratching and raking for food. Directly her eye was off me 

 I lay down, and when she looked up and missed me she sprang up 

 to the nearest resting-place from which to get a better view — 

 namely, the bush pedestal. Mr. Chandler pressed the bulb and 

 the photograph was taken. If only I could have had a snap of Mr. 

 Chandler's own surprised and delighted face when he emerged from 

 his cover, my happiness would have been complete. We took a 

 number of photographs, each from a chosen spot. In one case I 

 had just scratched the bird's head with my stick. While I was 

 doing that later on she took the end of the stick in her claws and 

 comtemptuously threw it aside. Photographs of Lyre-Birds' nests 

 were taken, some of them in the state to which the birds nearly 

 always reduce them after a season or two, if they are near or on 

 the ground, probably in searching for food, for the decaying sticks 

 and leaves offer shelter for grubs and so forth. The lining of the 

 old nests is frequently used for new nests. We noted that the 

 female bird did not sit in the nest at night with her young, though 

 the latter was not three weeks old. This fact, I think, is not 

 generally known. — L. C. Cook. Poowong, Victoria. 



From Magazines, &c. 



Ornithological Journal — ^The second number (April, 1914) of the 

 new quarterly magazine, The South Australian Ornithologist, has 

 been issued. It contains four important " Additions to a List of 

 the Birds of Austraha," by Gregory M. Mathews, F.R.S.E.— a new 

 species of Owl, Tyto galei, an entirely new genus alhed to Zosterops, 

 Macgillivrayornis claudi, and two new sub-species of Finches, 

 named respectively Mgintha temporalis macgillivrayi and Neochmia 

 phceton alhiventer. The habitats are given as the Pascoe and 

 Claude Rivers, Northern Queensland. These discoveries were 

 made by two members of the R.A.O.U. — Dr. Wm. Macgilhvray, 

 Broken Hill, and Mr. J. A. Kershaw, F.E.S., National Museum, 

 Melbourne, to whom credit is due. Their field-notes will appear 

 later in The Emu. Mr. Mathews also contributes an interesting 

 historical " Note on Platycercus hcematogaster, Gould," while 

 there are other popular field-notes on different birds by local 

 subscribers. 



