T54 
The Emu. 
The Illustrations* 
Plate vii., " Gannets Nesting." This fine subject was taken by 
Mr. D. Le Souef on Cat Island during a recent trip to Bass 
Strait, mentioned on page 79 of the previous part (2). During 
the visit of a party from the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria 
in 1893 it was estimated there were about 2,500 Gannets on 
that island. It is pleasing to be able to report that in the 
opinion of Mr. Le Souef the number of birds is greater now. 
Plate viii., " Red-capped Dottrel's Nest " and " Pied Oyster- 
catcher's Nest." These pictures were taken by Mr. Le Souef 
during the same excursion, and make admirable illustrations of 
his paper, " Protective Colouration," &c. 
Plate ix. The photograph of the nest of the White-headed 
Osprey, which is situated on an isolated rock near the mouth of 
the Margaret River, Western Australia, has been kindly for- 
warded for reproduction by Mr. Bernard Woodward, Director of 
the Perth Museum, and was taken by his assistant, Mr. C. P. 
Conigrave. A petition has been presented to the Commissioner 
of Crown Lands (W.A.) for the permanent reservation of the 
site. Readers of " Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds " will 
remember the description given therein of the difficulties which 
beset those who wish to reach this spot. It would be interesting 
to know whether or not the same pair of Ospreys own this 
aerie as when Mr. Campbell photographed it eleven seasons ago. 
Last, but by no means least, plate x. represents " Taking 
Topknot Pigeons' Nests" in the Big Scrub. During his visit to 
the scrubs of the Richmond River district of north-eastern New 
South Wales, in 1899, Mr. S. W. Jackson succeeded in finding 
many rare nests and eggs. Among his finds were two nests 
with an egg each of the Topknot Pigeon {Lopholcemus antarcticus). 
Both nests were found on 26th October, 1899, were built in 
a very tall fig tree at an altitude of over 100 feet from the 
ground, and were obviously very difficult to obtain — in fact, 
they could not have been procured without the aid of a climbing 
ladder. After taking the nests Mr. Jackson photographed 
the tree, as the find was an important one. The crosses near 
the top of the tree show the situations of the two nests. The 
young man standing in the fork has lowered the ladder and just 
finished the operations. The interesting finding of these 
Pigeons' nests is chronicled in " Nests and Eggs " (Campbell), 
page 672. 
To raise the Jackson climbing ladder a fine line weighted 
with an ounce of lead is shot from a catapult over a limb at 
the required height. On recovery of the weighted end it is 
