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Show 18/1 -I LETTER FROM MR. E. P. RAMSAY. 7 hearing. These all pass and repass, hovering over the pedestrian's head, screaming all the time as if highly incensed, and finally retire, joining their voices in a sort of chorus, and waving their wings upward in a very singular fashion; but often, when they are almost out of sight, they suddenly wheel about and hurry back with fresh zeal to go through the whole annoying performance again. Their flight being so serene at such times, it is very easy to shoot them. Many persons, however, and particularly English residents, have a squeamish repugnance against eating their flesh. But the flavour of birds does not seem to depend altogether on their peculiar food; two species are sometimes equally good that feed very differently. The Burrowing Parrot (Conurus patachonicus) is very bitter in taste, and yet feeds on the same seeds as the Partridge and wild Pigeon; the Glossy Ibis eats the same food as the most delicious-flavoured Snipes, and yet, when cooked, its fat emits a sickening smell that renders it unfit for human food. Those who have eaten this Gull have found it rich and fine-flavoured, without any taint of rankness. " The Gulls seem everywhere preeminent among the feathered race for the singular beauty of their flight. Our bird forms no exception, but all its aerial movements are characterized with the same grace and buoyancy that have been observed in the allied species in other continents. On a still, hot day they love to soar to a vast height, and at such times appear like diminutive white specks on the sky. In fair weather their flight is always placid, a large body of them seen at a distance appearing to travel with the serene motion of a cloud. "When near, it is pleasing to see the wonderful precision with which each bird keeps its relative place in the flock. But it is in a high wind the Gull's flight is particularly interesting ; casually observed it seems altogether wild and irregular. The bird toils onward, alternately turning the upper and under surface of its wings, now struck motionless in mid-air, and again sweeping onward with redoubled velocity, now dropping downward until it nears the surface, and soaring anon toward the sky, apparently without an effort of its own, but borne aloft by the resistless violence of the wind." The Secretary read the following extracts from a letter addressed to him by Mr. Edward P. Ramsay, dated Dobroyde, Nov. 4th, 1870:- " The Ceratodus forsteri is found in the upper waters of the Burnet, Burrum, and Mary rivers, also in the creeks running into them as well as in the head-waters of the Fitzroy and Dawson, and in the deep lagoons and water-holes in those neighbourhoods. " O n the Gutchey Run, about thirty miles from Maryborough, is a water-hole, near the residence of Mr. Hilsham, in which these fishes are very numerous, and might be taken at almost any time. In the winter, however (from June to September), they go into a |
