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NATURE NOTES. 
It may be mentioned here that the Leatherwood gum is 
a clear yellow in colour, has a very aromatic odour, especially 
when warmed, and possesses valuable antiseptic properties, 
d’he Bischoff people apply it to cuts and burns, which heal 
quickly under this treatment, and it is said that some medical 
men in these colonies use it in their ointments, which may well 
be the case. 
Nov. i6 (this is the beginning of summer). — Observed bud 
at end of twig ; just a round knot of yellow gum (fig. i). 
Nov. 23. — The bud has now shot out to about the length of 
a quarter of an inch, pointed, still covered with gum (fig. 2). 
Nov. 30. — Now about half an inch in length: most of the 
gum has disappeared : colour yellowish, with small reddish 
streaks and red tip (fig. 3). 
Dec. 6. — The two rolled-up leaves, which emerged together 
from the bud, have now separated at the tips, but are still held 
together for about three-quarters of their length by the gum 
with which they were originally covered ; one leaf is longer than 
the other (fig. 4). 
Dec. 14. — The two leaves, still rolled, are held together yet 
at the lower part (fig. 5). 
Dec. 2J. — Considerable growth, but still rolled, and held 
together near the base (fig. 6). 
Dec. 28. — The two leaves are now separate, the gum having 
ceased to hold them, and have begun to unroll at the outside, 
which is the back of the leaf ; one is unrolling at the base, the 
other both at base and apex (fig. 7). 
Jan. 2. — Both leaves are now quite unrolled, and the stem 
on which they are growing has protruded slightly from the cup- 
like socket which represents what was the lower part of the 
bud (fig. 8). 
H. Stuart Dove. 
Table Cape, Tasmania. 
Young Cuckoo in Richmond Park. — The other evening I was a 
witness to that most impressive sight, which, when once seen, is never forgotten — 
the feeding of a young cuckoo by its foster-mother. Happening to stroll, just 
after sunset, on the outskirts of a “ plantation ” in Richmond Park, I saw a large 
grey bird, in company with a much smaller one, alight hazily on an adjacent birch 
tree and begin “kissing.” Prompted by curiosity I crept nearer, when I found 
them to be a young cuckoo with its foster-mother— in this case the familiar little 
flycatcher. Screening myself behind some bracken, I watched them. The fly- 
catcher would every now and then dart off for a short distance, returning with 
some insect with which she would feed her charge, who would open its mouth as 
though it were about to swallow its mother as well. This w.is repeated time after 
time, till, it getting dark, I began to move off, and they then flew into the denser 
part of the wood. It was almost humorous, the difference in the size of the 
little bread-winner and her lazy charge ; yet touchingly pathetic in the anxious 
and assiduous attention of the little bird. 
H. 11. Jones. 
