Page:The Emu volume 3.djvu/138

 Emu, from which, then, the Tasmanian variety, extinct only since the white man's advent, could not have essentially differed.—. Melbourne.

.—Sittella tenuirostris (Gould).—I have to report the occurrence of this species in Western Australia. Mr. Fred. Lawson forwarded to the Perth Museum several skins which he procured in the Murchison district. I think it is quite distinct from S. pileata and entitled to rank as a species.—. Perth, 17/8/03.

.—Podargus strigoides (Latham).—A friend of mine, Mr. W. J. Reardon, of Guildford, Western Australia, reported a singular occurrence to me which came under his own observation concerning a bird of the above species. Whilst crossing some fields between his country residence and the Guildford railway station, his attention was attracted to a large bird hanging on a neighbour's barb-wire fence. Being a bird-lover (and, by the way, one who gives the despised Greenbacked Silver-eye (Zosterops gouldi) its full due as one of the most potent enemies of the dreaded fruit-fly) he approached the suspended bird, which he took to be dead, when it, to his surprise, gave the most hostile signs of vitality by opening its capacious mouth in an angry manner. Examining it carefully he found it had impaled itself firmly by its wing on a projecting barb, and in its struggles to get free had further entangled itself by throwing itself over the cable and broken its wing. He at once disengaged and released the bird. It is evident that in the darkness it had flown directly against the barb with considerable force and struck it with the shoulder of its wing.

Anas superciliosa (Gmelin).—Another singular occurrence took place at Highgate Hill (a suburb of Perth) some three months ago. A pair of Black Ducks was observed to be flying very low, and much to the surprise of a policeman and a resident, who were engaged in conversation, the birds struck the telegraph wire, with the result that one was decapitated and the other maimed and killed. The policeman ignored the law of treasure-trove and the other man was ignorant of it.—Alex. Wm. Milligan. Perth, 17/8/03.

.—The Emu is unfortunately extinct in Tasmania, therefore it may be interesting to give the dimensions of one of its eggs which is in the possession of the writer. This unique specimen was collected about forty years ago in the eastern district of the island, and if it is a fair type of their size, these birds must have been slightly smaller than the Australian race, and it would be interesting to know the dimensions of any other authentic eggs that may still be in existence (excepting the one in Mr. J. W. Mellor's collection,