Page:The Emu volume 3.djvu/57

 were returning towards sundown, when a small bird which I took to be one of the Maluri darted out of some scrub and flew rapidly and strongly for a distance of two hundred yards. Flushing it again, a snap shot dropped it, and it proved to be Stipiturus malachurus (Emu-Wren). I was somewhat surprised to see this bird fly so readily and swiftly, as my previous experience of it was creeping tamely about in the scrub at a few feet distance.

Mr. R. Gale, of Fairlawn, told me the following curious story of a tame Emu:—The bird was allowed its liberty on the Margaret River estate, and apparently formed an attachment for a horse there, for when my informant drove this horse from Margaret River to his house near Busselton, a distance of 40 miles, the Emu arrived early the following day, in spite of having had to traverse cross roads and negotiate several fences of barbed wire and post and rails. Did the bird follow the horse by scent?

The Porphyrocephalus spurius (Red-capped Parrakeet) was fairly common in the forest country, but Calyptorhynchus naso (Red-tailed Cockatoo), which in former years was common, was not noted.

Glycyphila ocularis (Brown Honey-eater) was fairly common about the river, though Mr. A. W. Milligan considers this bird rare south of Perth.

Malurus splendens (Banded Wren) was not uncommon, but I failed to see M. elegans (Red-winged Wren). 8th to 25th November I spent at that delightful locality Ellensbrook, on the coast, south of Cape Naturaliste, where Mr. Milligan discovered his new Bristle-Bird (Sphenura litoralis), and from personal observation I can endorse his remarks as to the difficulty of obtaining specimens of this bird and the Black-throated Coachwhip-Bird, or of even sighting them. When returning homewards one evening, carrying my gun carelessly under my arm, feeling tired after a long day's tramp, a bird, carrying its tail perpendicularly, ran with immense speed across a patch of sand drift into a clump of bush. A snap shot had no result. On examination of its footprints in the fine sand, found them to be fairly evenly from 17 to 18 inches apart—a long stride for a bird of its size.

Subsequent examination of the locality proved by the numerous tracks that the birds frequented this patch of sand drift, running from one patch of rushes or bush to another. They apparently came out very early in the morning, as I waited hours on subsequent days at various times (except sunrise) without seeing the birds. The song of the Black-throated Coachwhip-Bird was frequently heard in one patch of dense coastal scrub, and once, whilst seated under the growth with a keen companion, the bird perched within about 5 feet of his head.

The Lipoa's egg-mound which was photographed by Mr. Conigrave was visited on 25th November, when the top had been freshly opened out. I was told of another nest of this species having been robbed of fifteen eggs in the vicinity of Cape Naturaliste about 12th December.