The Emu. 
23 
solemnly on telegraph wires, and seemed unheedful of the chorus 
of their mates — a true Australian hymn to dying day — which rose 
from all around. But neither " Jackass " nor Magpie had last 
word to say ; that was to be a voice of Spring. For us a Bronze 
Cuckoo had begun the day ; a Pallid Cuckoo ushered in the 
night. 
Flycatchers v» Ticks — Gannets. 
By Wm. M'Ilwraith, Emu Park, near Rockhampton. 
The dreaded cattle tick continues to extend the area of its 
operations in Queensland, and there are some stockowners who 
anticipate that it will migrate slowly to the Southern colonies. 
It may be interesting to note that among the enemies of the 
tick is the common and familiar Black and White Fan-tail, or 
Flycatcher ( RJiipidiira tricolor). Cattle here are tick-infested, 
and I noticed a cow at my gate on which gravid ticks were very 
perceptible. She lay down to rest, and became the subject of 
attentions from a Flycatcher. It alit on the extended side of the 
cow, dug its beak into the hair, pulled and tugged, and dropped 
to the ground with something in its beak. It went through a 
gobble-gobble performance and rested for a few seconds. Then it 
searched on the cow's side, and again seized some object, pulled it 
out, and swallowed it. This proceeding it continued for some time. 
Though I was not near enough to see what it was feeding on, I 
have not the least doubt it was immature ticks. Other insects 
being scarce at present, the tiny ticks were evidently acceptable. 
The common fowl is a tick consumer, and picks the mite off 
cattle whenever it is visible and chuckle can get at it. Infested 
cows keep still while their feathered friends are attending to the 
parasites. 
The weather here has been very cold, the sou'-westerly winds 
experienced coming off the snowfalls in New South Wales and 
South Australia. Among visitors driven north by cold weather 
are Gannets. They are not visible in summer. Now they are 
numerous close in shore, and it is most interesting to witness their 
aerial gyrations and diving. Yesterday forenoon (30th July) they 
were very busy ; at the turn of the tide — about three o'clock — the 
wind fell, and it became a dead calm, when they ceased diving. 
The calm lasted an hour, when one or two took wing again ; 
others could be seen sitting on the water in parties of half a 
dozen. There were brown immature birds besides the black 
and white. 
Mr. Clarence Smart, in June, shot on the shores of Port 
Phillip a Golden Plover. A veritable "stray," indeed. What 
was the bird (a female) doing in Australia at midwinter, when it 
should have been breeding under the "midnight sun" on the 
tundras of Northern Siberia } 
