NOTES AND QUERIES. 191 



is above the London price ; Shelduck from 4s. to 5s.; " sea-pies," 4d. each. 

 A Cormorant caught in the nets in 1885 (' Birds of Cumberland,' p. 81) was 

 sold for 8s., and even at that price the netters regretted its capture, as it 

 played sad havoc with their hands. The approved mode of cooking " sea- 

 pies " appears to be first to skin them, then boil them for ten minutes, and 

 finally stuff and roast them. Curlews treated the same way are said to 

 equal Duck. The behaviour of the various kinds of birds after they have 

 been caught is very different: Ducks die with scarcely a struggle, but 

 Curlews, Gulls, and Oystercatchers are game to the last, and are frequently 

 unpleasant customers to handle. We visited the nets again the following 

 week, at 6 a.m., and most weird were the cries of the different birds on the 

 dark marshes ; the uets were a second time without wildfowl. — T. N. 

 Postlethwaite (Hallthwaites, Millom, Cumberland). 



Notes from Western Australia.— My last notes were written, if I 

 remember correctly, from the Gascoyne in August, and chiefly concerned 

 a trip to the Mivalya River. Since then I have made an exceedingly 

 interesting trip overland to Perth, following the coast-line as a rule, at 

 a distance of about twelve mile's inland. Leaving the Gascoyne early in 

 September, we passed through flat country covered with one almost dense 

 thicket, at times opening on salt bush-flats, when we were enabled to see a 

 little distance away, this bush not growing more than two or three feet in 

 height. We followed the telegraph line to avail ourselves of the cut road, 

 the thicket on each side being, as a rule, quite impenetrable. Bird life 

 was uninteresting. We picked up many small species killed by striking 

 against the wire, principally the Grasshopper Birds which abounded. An 

 Emu or two was seen when we could get a glimpse of the country further 

 away. Water was very difficult to procure ; in fact we only found two pools 

 of mud before reaching the Wooramel River, and had we been a week later 

 should not even have had this. This river is about eighty miles from the 

 Gascoyne, and, like it, is almost invariably a dry sandy bed, but much 

 smaller. There was the usual fringe of white gum-trees along the 

 river-banks, in which were numerous flocks of the Western Lona-billed 

 Cockatoo. We now struck across dreary salt-marshes, absolutely bare of 

 everything, vegetable or animal, to the sea-coast, which we followed for a 

 few miles, wheu we found the thicket running down to the salt water, and 

 abounding in the famous Ngows, or Brush Turkeys, but to my great 

 disappointment it was too early for eggs. I noted the White-tailed Sea 

 Eagle, and with my binoculars could see large flocks of snow-white Egrets 

 feeding along the edge of the sea. There appear to be no fish in this part 

 of the sea ; shut in by islands to the west, and the water being shallow, it 

 seems to be too salt even for fish, owing to the intense evaporation. 

 Calling in at Flint Cliff Telegraph Station for stores I noted, in cages, 

 the Bronze-wing Pigeon and Blood-stained Cockatoo or "Joggle-Joggle," 



