The Emu. 
71 
and Yarra Rivers. I discovered its nest about 4 feet from the 
ground, in a stunted bush, on the edge of a tea-tree scrub which 
covers part of that locaHty. The structure is cup-shaped, some- 
what deep, and about 4 inches outside diameter ; dried fibres, 
fine twigs, and stalks form the exterior, and the Hning is com- 
posed of horsehair and fine grasses. It contained three fresh- 
laid eggs ; length, j^-inch ; extreme width, ^|^-inch ; shape, not 
much pointed ; ground colour white, with fine red-brown mark- 
ings, consisting of points, streaks, and roundish dots, the larger 
markings being most abundant at the thicker end, where they 
form a sort of wreath, while some of the smaller ones are 
scattered over the other parts of the surface. The markings are, 
in nearly every case, surrounded by a faint ashy margin of their 
own colour, imitating the appearance of having been painted 
on the white ground before the latter had properly dried, thus 
causing them partially to run into the white surface. This seems 
to be a decided characteristic in these eggs. The nest was dis- 
covered about October." — H. K. 
Stray Feathers. 
Apsotochromatism. — Those interested in the discussion 
which is vexing the souls of contributors to English and 
American bird magazines as to whether a moult takes 
place at every seasonal change of plumage, and which 
has been conducted in some cases under the barbarous 
heading of " Apsotochromatism " (literally a non-falling-off 
of colour), may find food for thought in the following in- 
cident, recorded in the Victorian Naturalist (vol. ix., p. 168), 
and mentioned originally in a letter to one of the editors of The 
Emu. Mr. E. M. Cornwall, a close observer of birds and their 
ways, says that a Galah "managed to injure its wings when 
flapping them, as birds love to do, after a shower. ... It 
was soon noticed that the whole of one side of his plumage was 
becoming of a darker colour, and two days after the injury the 
pink of the injured side had turned a dark red, and the grey of 
the back was distinctly darker on that side. . . . The bill 
also assumed a darker colour on that side." The vane of a 
feather is usually regarded as physiologically dead, but this 
occurrence, though an exceptional one, seems to strengthen the 
argument of those who contend that it is possible for colouring 
matter to pass from the basal gland throughout the whole 
structure. 
* * * 
For Observers. — No detail in bird life is too trivial to 
be overlooked. All aid to a complete knowledge of its life- 
history, which is not revealed only in what may be called its 
public appearances, but in those chapters of its existence when 
