74 Thre 1 Emu. 
of honour. He is a very clever bird — g'ets fresh ironbark 
(eucalypt) leaves every day, places them in the bower, and 
throws the stale ones out." — Ernest D. Barnard. 
* * * 
From a Lady Correspondent (Queensland). — "A 
little Shepherd's Companion {Rhipidura tricolor) has built in the 
vine right in front of my window, so I can watch it while 
doing my hair at the glass. Though I do not agree with 
the poet that 
' Birds in their little nests agree,' &c., &c., 
yet since I saw the R.T. savagely attack a small Honey-eater 
\Ptilotis fusca) and get it down on to the path on its (the P.F's.) 
back, I have ceased calling them (R.T.'s) ' dear little things.' " 
Time changes all, how soon ! — Lately a British ship (the 
Knight Errant, with a cargo from New York), 500 feet over all 
in length — the longest vessel that has come up the River Yarra 
— was berthed in the Victoria Dock, over the spot which not a 
quarter of a century ago was the edge of the West Melbourne 
Swamp, where Wild Ducks dabbled and Black Swans paddled 
in the mud. 
* * * 
A Sad Misadventure. — On the 23rd October, at Barcal- 
dine (Q.), a bird fancier named Watts met with a fatal accident. 
He had climbed a large gum tree to a height of about 60 feet 
after a stray bird when he fell (through a branch breaking) to 
the ground and was killed. 
' * * 
Parrakeets in the City. — A pair of Red-backed Parra- 
keets {Psephotus hcematonotus) has been for months frequenting 
the vacant pieces of ground between the Australian Wharf and 
the Victoria Dock. Possibly they roost in the roof of some 
of -the adjacent buildings, probably the Gasworks. 
* * * 
. Frontal Shrike Tits Breeding near Cities. — This 
season (October) a pair of Shrike Tits built a nest and reared 
young in a tall gum tree overhanging the Yarra, not three miles 
from Melbourne. Another pair had a home in a tree above the 
kitchen at " Holmfirth," Fulham, about six miles from Adelaide. 
* * * 
An Ibis Rookery. — " Thousands of Ibises are nesting on 
Widgiewa station, and within ten miles of Urana. Their 
nests are on 'ligrun bushes and on the higher tufts of ground 
