Mr. M. Elsey on the Birds of Northern Australia. 61 



Australia. Mr. Gould considered this communication to be of great 

 value, inasmuch, as, besides mentioning that the writer had acquired 

 an extensive collection of birds, it contains numerous very interesting 

 observations respecting the various species which had been met with 

 in the neignbourhood of the Victoria River Depot, N.W. Australia, 

 lat. south 1 7° 34' 30" ; their interest being much enhanced by the 

 circumstance of many of them referring to several forms not pre- 

 viously known to occur in that part of the country. 



Victoria River Depot, N.W. Australia, 

 S. Lat. \r 34' 30'^ 

 June 1856. 

 My dear Sir, 



I am sorry I cannot send you any account of large collec- 

 tions or extensive ornithological notes. Circumstances over which 

 I could have no control have kept me a close prisoner at this camp 

 since last October. My collection of birds comprises up to the pre- 

 sent time 103 species, some of which are, I think, new. Of Hawks 

 I have five kinds, including two species of Milvus. The latter feed 

 entirely on grasshoppers, are most cowardly birds, and utter a pecu- 

 liar shrill wailing cry. The first I procured was of a very uniform 

 dark, dirty brown colour. It was common on our first arrival here, 

 but disappeared about December, and was s6on replaced by Milvus 

 affinisy which has latterly become very numerous, and now perches 

 in hundreds on the trees around the camp. These birds are excellent 

 eating, and certainly exceed any other game we have here in flavour 

 and tenderness. There are also three Eagles, neither of which I have 

 been able to get, for though knocked down with our largest shot, 

 they have got away ; one has a dark-slate upper surface and wings, 

 and white breast and belly. It frequents Sandy Island, the Stony 

 Spit, and other parts of the river where sandbanks aiford good fish- 

 ing ground. The second is smaller, and of a pure white. I have 

 only seen it once, when passing some dangerous rapids in the boat. 

 The third is brown, with a very light-coloured and small head and 

 neck, while the wings have an immense expanse. I should mention 

 that one of our men found the black and white Eagle nesting in 

 April. The nest was of immense size, and contained a single purely 

 white egg of an almost globular form. 



I have three Owls. The Barking Owl of these parts is a fine 

 bird, the upper surface of which is beautifully mottled with dark- 

 red and cinnamon-browns ; while the under surface is white, with a 

 central streak of brown in the feathers of the breast. It builds in 

 the hollows of the huge Gouty-stem tree {Adansonia) of this coast, 

 and incubates in March and April. Another is a large dirty slate- 

 brown bird, with rough, dull yellow beak and legs. I procured one 

 specimen only early in November, most likely a stray bird. The 

 third was an Athene, rather smaller, of a mottled brown. The 

 stomachs of all the specimens of the Athene were crammed with Or- 

 thoptera. 



There is one true Caprimulgus here, of a beautiful warm mottled 



