292 Bird Day. [^^f-„ 



" With the greatest pleasure I read in T/ic A't't^ister an article headed 

 'Arbor and Bird Day.' I have been waiting for this move a long while, and 

 at last it has come. It is only through the children that we can hope to 

 educate the coming generations to recognize the great part our native birds 

 play in the welfare of the State, quite apart from preventing much cruelty in 

 destroying our feathered friends. It is a fitting thing that Arbor Day and 

 Bird Day should be held at the same time, because one depends on the other. 

 It has been a great wonder to me that this fact has not been noticed before. 

 Much has been done and said (c|uite rightly, too) by our Forest Department 

 and National Park Board, but how strange that bird protection has not come 

 into the question, when we know that science, and also many thousands of 

 practical demonstrations, have shown us that the flora is dependent on the 

 birds for its existence as much as the birds are dependent on it. They are 

 the eradicators of hundreds of different kinds of pests and blights which 

 attack our timber trees and our flora in general, and their fertilization, also, 

 is almost dependent on the native birds in many cases. The Education 

 Department is to be heartily congratulated on this important undertaking. 

 It has a wonderfully energetic officer in Mr. Edquist, who has only lately 

 taken to this study, but is rapidly furnishing himself with a practical 

 knowledge of our native birds. All the many ornithologists in South Aus- 

 tralia will do all they can to help the movement. I am proud to think of 

 being one of the original members of the first Ornithological Association of 

 Australasia — the S.A.O.A. — which has done an immense amount of work, 

 not only in the advancement of ornithological science, but also for the pro- 

 tection of birds. The South Australian Education Department is the first 

 to form school clubs, and may this increase each year ; but the Victorian 

 Department has had two annual ' Bird Days,' and has started the Oould 

 League for the protection of native birds. The membership up to date is 

 25,000." 



Stray Feathers. 



Ground-Lark's Nest on Highway. — Whilst strolling 

 down the Chadstone-road here last week I flushed a Ground- 

 Lark {Ant/uis). On looking down I found the nest in a clump 

 of onion weed, with three eggs in it, right in the roadway — in 

 fact, only two yards from the centre, and over which spot 

 numbers of horses and cattle pass every day. — J. F. Bradly. 



Murrumbeena, 22/9/10. 



* * * 



Foster-Parent of Fan-tailed Cuckoo. — I have received 

 from Mr. C. E. Ortin, a new member of the R.A.O.U. in 

 Western Australia, a letter with the following postscript : — 

 " While my men were engaged in scrub-cutting a ^qvj days 

 ago in the densest thicket, they flushed a bird from a nest which 

 turned out to be a Redthroat's {PyrrholcEinus brnnnea), con- 

 taining two eggs, also ^g'g of Fan-tailed Cuckoo {^Cacovimitis 

 flabelliformis), I believe this is a new foster-parent for this 

 Cuckoo." — J. A. Ross. Melbourne, 30/9/10. 



* * * 



Plumage of the Female Pink-breasted Robin 

 {Petroeca rhodinogaster). — Mr. O. L. Adams obtained one of the 

 above species, when on one of his surveying trips to the 



