PTILOHHIS. 



27 



^"■"^HIS beautiful representative of the Paradiseida in Australia was discovered by the late 

 -L Mr. John MacGillivray on one of the Barnard Islands during the survey of the north- 

 eastern coast of Queensland by the officers of H.M.S. "Rattlesnake,'" in iSii. On the mainland 

 its range extends from the neighbourhood of Cardwell, as far north as the Bloomfield River 

 District. During the voyage of the "Chevert" to the north-eastern coast of Queensland and 

 New Guinea, in 1875, Mr. George Pilasters also succeeded in procuring specimens on one of the 

 Barnard Islands. In 1887, and again in 1889, Messrs. E. J. Cairn and R. Grant procured an 

 unusually large series of these birds on the Bellenden Ker Range, while collecting there on behalf 



of the Trustees of the Australian Museum. 



Regarding this species, Mr. Robert Grant, 

 now Assistant Taxidermist at the Australian 

 !\Iuseum, has kindly supplied the following 

 notes: — " W'e found both sexes of Queen 

 Victoria's Rifle-bird fairly distributed on the 

 table-lands about the Upper Barron River, 

 Lake Eichani, and Boar Pocket. I have also 

 shot females at Ri\'erstone, on the flats along 

 the Mulgrave River, about sixteen miles from 

 Cairns. It is, however, on the table-lands, 

 in the dense and luxuriant tropical vegeta- 

 tion, in which palms, ferns, orchid-covered 

 trees and vines flourish, that this lovely 

 bird has its home. Each male seems to 

 have a special haunt of its own, and when 

 another of iiis own sex and species en- 

 croaches or trespasses on his domain they 

 chase one another here and there through 

 the foliage, but whether in sport or combat, I 

 do not know. The male delights in swinging 

 and fluttering on some rope-like vine extending across a creek, or hanging from tree to tree, 

 especially in a spot where the sun's rays filter through the canopy of leaves overhead. He is 

 e-xtremely acti\-e when searching for food among the bark of trees, stag-horn, bird-nest, and 

 other ferns, arboreal orchids, and other epiphytes. One can hear, in the early morning, the 

 harsh rasping-like note uttered at intervals by this species; but being difficult to imitate, great 

 caution must be used in approaching them. The flight of the male is short but rapid; sometimes 

 when one is seated in the scrub, the well-known rustle of the wings is heard as he flies quickly 

 past. This noise, which resembles in sound the rustling of a lady's silk dress close by, is 

 produced by the movement of the wing-feathers, and is confined to the males. 



"One mornmg, when following a pebbly creek, I entered a small glade almost clear 

 of trees, on the other side of which was part of a dead tree, almost denuded of its branches. 

 On this tree I observed three or four birds, and from their strange and peculiar actions I 

 concluded it was to me an unknown species. Trying to get within shooting range, I disturbed 

 them and they quickly darted into the scrub. Early next morning, under cover of the scrub, 

 I approached the tree from the opposite side, and managed to get close to it unobserved. 

 Peering through the foliage, I was delighted to find the birds on the same branch as I saw 

 them the previous day, and having a good view of them soon discovered they were Queen 

 "Victoria's Rifle-birds; one a fully plumaged adult male, the others females or youn^ males, and 

 evidently a pair of adults accompanied by their young. The brilliantly-plumaged male was 

 spreading his wings in such a manner that the primary feathers of each wing were brought 



(^UEEN VICTORIAS EIFLE-BIRD. 



