255 



NATURE NOTES. 



albino tree-creeper. — In October last year an interesting albino was brought 

 to me for identification. It was shot close to Forbes. The plumage was of the 

 purest white, the eyes being Mark, and the bill, leg's, ami feet a. pale brownish- 

 grey. 1 despatched it to the Australian Museum, where it was determined as the 

 Red-browed Tree-creeper, Climacteris erythrops.—A.. C. Brownhill, Forbes. 



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X est ox a GAS-BRACKiET.— Mr. S. W. Moore sends an interesting account, to- 

 gether with a photograph, which is unfortunately not suitable for reproduction, 



of the nest of a Black-and-white Fantail, Rhipidura tricolor, which was built on a 

 gas bracket on the balcony of the Central Australian lintel, at liourkc. Despite 

 the fact that the balcony is much used by hotel residents, anil that the nest be- 

 came so loose that the proprietor tied it on with string, a brood of three was suc- 

 cessfully reared. 



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Pallid Cuckoo Feeding Young.— Mr. S. C. Burnell semis a note from 

 Turramurra that a Pallid Cuckoo, Cuculus pallidus, was observed on the 25tli 



October last, feeding a young one of its own species. The adult bird repeatedly 

 visited a Virginia creeper growing over a porch, obtained a grid) of the common 

 Vine Moth, and Mew hack with it to a telegraph wire, upon which the young one 

 was perched, where it passed the grub to the waiting young one. (My own ob- 

 servations have long since convinced me that the Pallid Cuckoo collects its young, 

 sometimes before they are fully able to tend Lor themselves, and takes them north 



with it.— Ed.) 



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Pelicans v. Ducks. — While touring through the Lower Lachlan River dis- 

 trict recently, my attention was called to the fact that pelicans devour young 

 wild ducks. 



A brood of about 14 young black ducks, with their mother, was stranded in 

 a small waterhole in the Lachlan River, miles from any other water, the liver 

 being at this part practically dry. Five or six pelicans were swimming aboui on 

 the pond (little more than a puddle), collecting the fish it contained. 



One of the pelicans deliberately seized a duckling and swallowed it — my in- 

 formant (whose veracity is beyond doubt) was astounded, and watched the pro- 

 ceeding's. All the pelicans then joined in the chase, and the ducklings quickly 

 disappeared, while their parent fluttered up the bank. 



The largest pelican succumbed to a rifle bullet, his well-merited punishment 

 for killing ducks in close season, and his gullet was found to contain five black- 

 ducklings . 



I have had no personal experience of the destruction of ducks by peli'/ans, 

 but have on two occasions seen a pelican, when disturbed, disgorge a water rat, 

 while in November 1919, at Benerembah, on the Murrumbidgee, I took from the 

 gullet of a pelican a golden perch which measured 21 inches in length. — H. K 

 Anderson, Manly 



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Wild Duces in Riverina. — Throughout Riverina in normal seasons, wild 

 ducks of various species may be seen with their brood of ducklings in almost every 

 lagoon, waterhole, swamp, &c. 



