132 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
a 
‘This is the only occasion, in my fifteen years’ experience, 
that I have caught the pallid cuckoo out of season... I had 
always pinned my faith to him as a regular migrant, rarely 
‘ coming south earlier than August, and returning north again 
in February or March. The bronze cuckoos of both species 
are notoriously irregular migrants, and are, at the time of 
writing (mid-June), plentiful about this district; while the 
fantailed cuckoo does not migrate at all—at least in the Sydney 
' district. ; 
‘Iam very interested to find that the gullies at the head of 
Middle Harbour afford a last stronghold for a few of our larger 
and rarer species, which I had not imagined to breed so close 
to Sydney before. The lyre-bird may be heard in all his glory 
within six miles of the G.P.O., but I would like to stipulate 
that this information is solely for the use of naturalists, and 
meant to be kept particularly dark from the world at large. 
‘Unfortunately, promiscuous gunning, and particularly Sunday 
shooting, is very rife along the Milson’s Point line, and I fear 
that, unless something is done promptly to put a stop to it, the 
remaining few of these interesting birds will disappear. 
A pair of white-bellied sea-eagles also inhabits the calm 
upper waters. When I resided at Manly I occasionally saw 
these magnificent birds of prey about Middlé Head, but took 
them to be the pair which breeds on Scotland Island, at 
Newport. I find, however, that they are safely domiciled on 
a barren and precipitous sandstone bluff on the northern side 
of the harbour, where they have bred in safety for years. 1 
have not yet inspected the eyrie, but hope to do so shortly. 
Would it be possible to obtain special protection for this noble 
pair of birds? Surely they are worth keeping, but their long 
immunity seems to be making them dangerously tame. 
_ A pair of whistling eagles, the smallest of our eagles, has a 
nest in a gully running down from the railway to the harbour, 
It is quite inaccessible to the egg-collector, being over one 
hundred feet from the ground, and the birds are likely to breed 
for many years, if they can but keep out of the reach of the 
thoughtless pot-hunters and irate hen-fanciers. 
It is a splendid thing to see such birds within a few miles of 
‘the heart of ‘the city, and I would like to find some adequate 
means to keep them there, 
PARASITIC ENTOMOLOGY. 
(By Mr, HL. G. W. Palmer.) 
To Western Australia belongs the credit of having done more, 
and having spent more, than any other of the Australian States 
_in trying to establish within its borders the insects parasitie on 
the pests of the orchardists and agriculturists generally. 
