300 
Forgotten Feathers 
r The Emu 
L April 
Forgotten Feathers 
AN OLD-TIME NATURALIST ON TASMANIAN ISIRDS. 
In West’s History of Tasmania, written in 1850, published in 
1852, a short section is devoted to the birds of the island. This 
was written by Ronald Gunn, F.R.S., at the author’s request. 
He puts in a good word for the Hawks, which he says 
it would be wise for the colonists to spare, as they are most 
powerful and persevering enemies of the snakes which infest 
much of the island. “The beautiful White Hawk (Astur novcc- 
hollandicc ) erroneously called an albina by Mr. Gould, once 
very abundant, is now becoming rare,) having been nearly ex¬ 
tirpated for the sake of its skin, by the zeal of collectors.” Re¬ 
garding Parrots: “The Green and Rosehill Parrots (Platycercus 
flaviventris et eximius) occur in immense flocks’in some places, 
and White Cockatoos (Cacatua galerita ) were at one time to be 
seen in great numbers, but are now becoming scarce.” . . . “Two 
Pigeons and four species of Quail are all the rasorial birds in the 
island: the true gallinaceous birds being wholly wanting. Of 
the thirty species of grallatores, the most remarkable is the 
Emu. Very few individuals can now exist in the island, and it 
is to be feared that its total extinction will be effected ere it can 
'be ascertained whether the Tasmanian bird is identical with that 
of New Holland. T ame Emus are common in the Colony, but 
the original stock of most of those domesticated was introduced 
from Port Phillip.” This throws important light on the supposed 
Tasmanian birds seen by Mr. B. R. Dyer at Mona Vale and New 
Noi-foH^ in the late fifties of last century | Emu, XXIII., page 
222 ]. Mr. Gunn does not seem to have taken much trouble to 
ascertain whether the island bird was actually extinct or not at 
the time of his writing ( 1850 ), but in all probability it was. 
and those seen by Mr. Dyer were most likely of the Victorian 
species. 
The author mentions the immense flocks of Mutton Birds 
U uffinus tenuirostris ) existing in Bass Strait, and that Capt. 
Binders, when near the north-west extremity of our island, saw 
a stre am of them from 50 to 80 yards in depth, and 300 or more 
yards in breadth, flying as compactly as free movement of their 
wings would allow; and during a full hour and a half this stream 
I Petrels continued to pass without interruption. “This bird 
J Ur, “Ows in the ground, forming what are called by the sealers 
rookeries,’ and a considerable trade was at one time carried 
? n . ] n their feathers, eggs and salted bodies.” Mr. A. J. Camp- 
XVt ^ r * en( h the domestic cat, which has “gone bush” [vide Emu, 
^ ^TII-, page 175 ], was, even at that time, three-quarters of 
a cer |tury ago, a destroyer of our bird-life, for Mr. Gunn 
mentions that, although European rats and mice had become 
common. all over the island, the domestic cat, gone wild, 
was proving very destructive to Quail, and to those species which 
are muc h on the ground. — H. Stuart Dove, F.Z.S., \V. Devon- 
Port, Tas 
