THK WOMBAT. 



with more sedge and wet water weeds. A dry-cell battery was 

 hidden with it, and. wires cairied to the nest connected with a 

 specially designed switch, on which it was hoped the bird would 

 tread, and so connect the battery and expose the plate." 



By this means three plates were successfully exposed, and the 

 article continues, " If this method, succeeds with a bird of such 

 extreme 6hyness and timidity as the Purple Heron, it should prove 

 of great service in obtaining records of birds and animals hitherto 

 impossible. Not only birds at their nests, but any bird or animal, 

 large or small, diurnal or nocturnal, which can be attracted by a 

 bait, or which habitually uses the same path or run, can now be 

 photographed. Of course, for nocturnal animals, the inclusion in 

 the circuit of a flashlight, to be ignited by the same current which 

 operates on the shutter, is indispensable. 



Besides the Purple Heron, the trap was tried at the nests of a 

 Marsh Harrier and a Great Crested Grebe. These attempts, from 

 the difficulty there was in connecting the camera, were failures. 



Before leaving England experiments were made with the trap 

 at a Lapwing's nest, which were successful three times out of four, 

 only so far as that the bird duly went on and released the shutter. 

 This at first was uncovered and rather noi^y, and the bird 

 " jumped ;" the fourth try, the shutter having been improved and 

 covered in, was entirely successful. The Lapwing, however, this last 

 time sat on the switch for a couple of hours and completely ex- 

 hausted the dry battery — this contingency not having been allowed 

 for. An automatic cut-off has now been made, and aftsr the release 

 of the shutter no more battery action can possibly take place, how- 

 ever long the switch is kept pressed down. The shutter, by the 

 way, was made by Messrs Dallmeyer, of Newman-street." 



The article is accompanied by a pl«te showing one of the 

 results attained ; it is an excellent picture of a Purple Heron stand- 

 ing by its nest. 



THE LATE PROFESSOR RALPH TATE. 



Anothe): of our most prominent Australian scientists has passed 

 away in the person of Professor Ralph Tate, and one cannot but 

 sincerely regret the serious lots to Australian science of further 

 fruits from his ripe experience. He was not old in years, a-i his age 

 at his death was only sixty-one, and one would h^ve expected, in 

 the ordinary course of things, that hio fine frame would have lasted 



