56 
The Kmu. 
The young leave the nest within a short time of hatching, and 
hide at once if danger threatens. If one remains quiet for a 
few moments, the soft whistle reveals the hiding place, and they 
are easily captured. 
Nothing is more interesting than the helpless Pukeko of a 
day or two old, with its dark bluish-black down, with silvery 
hair-like tips, and ivory bill. 
North- Western Notes- 
Bv Thomas Carter, Point Cloates, W.A. 
Ox the loth September I paid a flying trip north in the hope 
of finding eggs of Ereniioniis carteri, but was unfortunately too 
late. When driving in a buggy through the thick, scrubby grey- 
leaved species of saltbush, in which one finds this bird, and 
which, growing from 3 to 4 feet in height, is very difficult stuff 
to " wade " through, I noticed an old bird fly out. On going to 
the spot I found a nest, which I have no doubt belonged to this 
species. It was built among the twigs, about one foot from the 
ground, and was a bulky structure measuring about 4^4 inches 
across the top, and 3 inches in depth. The top was quite open 
and somewhat deep. The nest was built of dry grass and fibre, 
some of the latter being of a texture like loose twine. Lining 
there was none, but several dead saltbush leaves were in the 
bottom, having probably fallen in. Inside the nest and 
below it were numerous elytrae of beetles, mostly of a small 
shield beetle. The old bird perhaps resorted to the nest to eat 
them. I have noticed remains of black beetles in the crops of 
specimens shot before. The young birds appeared to have only 
recently left the nest. The bird I shot was a male. 
A little farther on, the same day, I saw a family party of 
Rufous-crowned Emu Wrens {^Stipitunis rujiceps). One of the 
young birds I shot had apparently just left the nest, and it had 
no trace of the bright rufous crown of the adult bird. 
It appears, therefore, that both these species lay about 
August, or it may depend much on the rains. This is a some- 
what dry season. 
With reference to ]\Ir. A. W. ]\Iilligan"s lately described 
Mirafra icoodicardi, when driving about 50 miles inland from here 
on the 30th and 31st of October last year, I noticed some small 
Larks of a very rufous colour that were strange to me, and I 
shot three or four. They were feeding in the short grass by the 
road, and when disturbed rose with a rising and falling flight to 
settle again not far away, and lie close : and they seemed rarely 
to perch on bushes, though I noticed them doing this last 
month, when I saw numbers of them in the same locality. 
On reading descriptions of M. horsfieldi and M. secnfida, I did 
not feel satisfied that my birds quite tallied with them, and men- 
tioned, casually, in a letter to Mr. A. J. Campbell, that I had 
