Harvey tells me that the alleged cicada in my last bulletin is, rather, a member of the Coleoptera. He may be right, and if so I am delighted to be corrected. My next instalment takes me into Newstead to meet up with my fellow Melbourne Uni law student from the 1950s and old New Guinea hand, John Pasquarelli. Since his stormy political days in Canberra he has turned his hand to painting and held some successful exhibitions. The point here is that, like myself and many Canberra residents, he has a particular feeling for magpies which have emerged as a theme in several paintings. In this, he is in the company of among others The Port Jackson Painter, Sydney Long, Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan and Clifton Pugh who have all taken the maggie as a subject, each in their own way. Moreover, as shown here in the early morning Newstead light, John is a Feeder, as several of us are, taking pleasure in the grateful melodious chortle of our black and white friends. I trust I am on firm ground taxonomically in suggesting that the magpie in the painting is watching a member of the Monotremata.
