Page:The Emu volume 4.djvu/151

 deformed I decided to kill the bird. For this purpose I gave it three doses at different times of prussic acid on meat. Result, nil. Then I gave it arsenic twice, and still the bird lived, until finally I chloroformed it and skinned it. It had grown quite tame. The irides are a beautiful bright yellow, and eyes brighter and larger than the Boobook's, and constantly "winking" (conniving), hence the specific name. The legs are short, thick, and powerful. The note or cry of this Owl is exactly like that of the Boobook.

(Ninox boobook).—I have little to note about this Owl. Mr. M'Lennan found five nests last year, two of which had clutches of three. This was in October and November. An interesting fact in connection with one nest (which had three young ones) is that in the same hollow of the branch, about 3 feet away, was a brood of three young Laughing Jackasses (Brown Kingfishers). What with the Jackass family being fed by day, and the Owl family by night, things must have been rather busy in that hollow. I recently sent a young Boobook Owl to my father, who put it in a rat-infested cellar in the city. The bird is free to fly about the large cellar, and since his advent not a rat has been heard of. Perhaps the Public Health authorities might here find a remedy for plague-infected rats.

Island lies some 14 miles west-north-west of the port of Fremantle. It is only of small extent, being about 7 miles in length, and about 2 miles in breadth at its widest part. It is the most northern portion of a limestone ridge, running in a south-easterly direction towards the mainland. Other parts of this ridge form the islands of Karnac, Garden Island, and a few smaller rocks of no importance. The south-western side of Rottnest is for the most part a much-eroded line of cliffs, with an occasional small stretch of sandy beach.

The interior part of the island is clothed with very dense acacia scrubs, and, were it not for "rides" having been cut as means of communication, would be quite impenetrable without the most severe exertion. Except at the settlement on the eastern shores, trees are quite absent, and the majority of those found there have been artificially introduced. An important feature, from an ornithological point of view, is a series of large salt lakes or lagoons. In the hot weather these evaporate to a large extent, and become for the time being mud flats, forming favourite feeding grounds for numerous Waders.

There are few species of animals on the island; some of these, even, are introduced. But Macropus brachyurus, or short-tailed wallaby, is very common in the acacia scrubs.