348 CORACIID.E. 



to-day, 2oth February, 1895. I saw to-day two Scythrops and two Calornis, and Torres Strait 

 Pigeons are still with us. 25th July, 1895, Mcrops still here on their southern flight ; they return 

 in the beginning of the year in the wet season, and are locally known as ' Rain-birds." " 



From Duaringa, on the Dawson River, Queensland, Mr. H. G. Barnard sends me the 

 following notes : — " Eurystomus aitstralis appears here in October from the north, and at once pair, 

 then select a suitable hole in a gum-tree, in the vicinity of which they remain for about a month, 

 frequently flying in and out of the hole ; nothing, however, is done in the way of preparing a 

 nest, the eggs, four in number, being laid on the decaying wood or soft earth a foot or eighteen 

 inches from the entrance. Their food consists principally of large Cicadae, of which great numbers 

 are about during the breeding time of these birds : they leave here and go north in February." 



From Copmanhurst, on the Upper Clarence River, Mr. George Savidge writes me : — 

 " Euvystomus pacificus usually arrives in this district about the latter end of September, and departs 

 again after breeding about the end of February or March. It lays at the end of October, in 

 November and December, and nearly always four eggs in number for a sitting, but during 

 dry seasons, all the nests obtained contained only three eggs in each. A pair, as you know, 

 breed in a tree close to my house, but as soon as the young are able to leave the nesting place, 

 the old birds leave with them for a more retired part. The old birds search for food when they 

 have young until it is quite dark. The young birds make a peculiar screeching angry noise." 

 Mr. Savidge, on the 8th October, 1896, wrote as follows : — " Migratory birds are late this 

 season. The Roller I heard for the first time yesterday, October 7th ; they usually come the 

 second week in September. The Pallid Cuckoo was the earliest of all, July nth. Flinder's 

 Cuckoo has only just arrived." 



Mr. Thos. P. Austin sends me the following notes from Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New 

 South Wales : — " Eurystomus austraUs arrives here in the early part of October and they invariably 

 resort to the same favoured localities year after year, but do not always choose the same hollow 

 for nesting, in fact I have never noticed them nesting a second time in the same hole. In the 

 breeding season they are bold, fearless birds, although I have never been attacked while robbing 

 their nests. I have watched them fighting an Iguana (Varanus varius) ; eventually the birds 

 won the fight by knocking the Iguana ofl" the tree ; this reptile was rather a small one, otherwise 

 I am afraid the bold birds would have lost the contents of their nest. As a rule these birds 

 slip off their nests and fly away when approached, but I have known them refuse to depart even 

 when a rifle bullet has been fired into the entrance of the hollow, and the bird was sitting only 

 two feet within. This bird did not come out until the climber was just about to look into the 

 hollow." 



Mr. Robert Grant, Taxidermist of the Australian Museum, has given me the following 

 notes : — " In North-eastern Queensland I found Eurystomus pacificus principally in the forest 

 country, on the tablelands near Herberton ; and in New South Wales on the Bellinger River and at 

 Narromine and Lithgow, and usually in large timber in the neighbourhood of rivers and creeks. 

 They breed in holes in trees. In December, 1907, my brother Mr. Richard Grant found a 

 nesting place in a hole in a tree at Cox's River, Blue Mountains, only twelve feet from the ground; 

 it contained two young ones. The stomachs of the birds I have shot contained principally 

 beetles and other insects." 



Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me from Melbourne : — " Euvystomus pacificus is generally found 

 in North-western Australia, along the course of rivers, where it perches on the highest dead 

 branches of trees. Occasionally it will dart off after some passing insect, upon the capture of 

 which the bird returns to its perch, while its mate takes the next turn. I have several times 

 found the Dollar-bird near Melbourne, and one was sent in from Bairnsdale, Gippsland, for 

 identification." 



