CAPE YORK. 353 



dead leaves, and tries to creep within shot of the birds. The 

 call is uttered usually only at intervals of several minutes ; it is 

 very easily imitated by whistling, and thus a call may often be 

 elicited, and the bird's whereabouts discovered. 



The bird is extremely shy, and the snapping of a dead twig 

 is sufficient to scare it, and it requires great patience and per- 

 severance to shoot one. It several times happened to me that I 

 got within fifteen or twenty yards of a Eifie-bird, and stood 

 gazing into the thick tangled mass of creepers overhead, where 

 I knew that the bird was, without being able to get a glimpse 

 of it, until at last it darted out without my catching sight of it. 



The bird takes short rapid nights from one part of the bush 

 to another, the rounding of the front of the wings giving it a 

 peculiar appearance when on the wing. The Blacks pointed out 

 the red fruit of the Areca palm as the food of the bird, and I 

 found abundance of the seeds of this palm in the stomach of a 

 bird which I shot. The one bird which I shot was hopping 

 about up and down amongst a thick piece of bush, much in the 

 way of a wren or warbler. The male in full plumage is indeed 

 a splendid object ; the female and the young birds of both sexes 

 are of a dull brown colour, as is the case with all the Birds of 

 Paradise. 



When walking in the woods in search of birds, a slight 

 rustling in the fallen leaves attracts one's attention, and the 

 Black guide becomes greatly excited. It is a pair of the " Mound- 

 birds " (Megapodus tumulus), which are disturbed and are seen 

 running off like barn-door fowls, and when thus luckily hit 

 upon are easily shot. Several "Brush Turkeys" (Talegalla 

 Lathami), were shot during our stay at Somerset, and the huge 

 mounds thrown up by them were common objects at the borders 

 of the scrubs, but the season was not far enough advanced for 

 them to have commenced laying eggs. 



A brilliant Bee-eater {Merops ornatus) was common at Cape 

 York, and to be seen seated, as is the wont of Bee-eaters, on 

 some dead branch, and darting thence from time to time after 

 its prey. A little Ground Pigeon (Geopelia), not much bigger 

 than a sparrow, was also abundant. 



A species of Swallow-shrike (Artamus leucopyyialis) was 



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