TANySIPTERA. 



379 



December 1904. They do not keep to the main scrub to breed as they did last year, as I found 

 several of 'their tunnels in small patches of scrub, one was in an ants' nest on the bank of a creek, 

 the scrub about it being similar to what was growing on the steep banks. The surroundmg 

 country was open forest, and the main scrub was on the hills a mile away. I see that Mr. J. A. 

 Thorpe found them breeding at Cape York, digging a tunnel about fifteen inches m length, in a 

 Termites' nest a few feet from the ground. It is only a minor point, but they could not do that 

 here as the ants' nests in the scrub are only about eighteen inches high and a foot m width. I 

 found six of their tunnels on the 15th January, 1905. All the sets I took contained three eggs in 

 each and they were all more or less incubated. In each instance the tunnel was about the middle 

 of the ants' mound and faced down hill. It would seem that the sitting bird has to forage for 

 itself as four of the sets, although not quite cold, had evidently not been sat on for some time, 

 and the birds did not show themselves. The fifth set was quite warm and the bird perched on 

 a tree alongside, as I dug out the nest. The time of day does not seem to make any diflference, 

 as two of the tunnels were dug out about 1 1 a.m., two about 4-20 p.m., and the fifth at 12-30 p.m. 

 Another tunnel contained young birds. Tanysipteva sylvia is a regular visitor here in the wet 

 season, appearing in November or December, remaining to breed, then going away. 



While resident at Ripple Creek, Herbert River, Mr. J. A. Boyd wrote me as follows :-" In 

 Dr Ramsay's 'Tabular List of Australian Birds,' Port Denison is included m the habitat of 

 Tanysiptcra sylvia, but I have never seen it here in the Herbert River District ; they come as far 

 south as Dalrymple-s Gap, which seems to be about their southern limit." Subsequently, however 

 Mr Boyd forwarded me two eggs of a set of four, taken on Ripple Creek Sugar Plantation, and 

 Mr. A. F. Smith also noted them at Ingham, near the mouth of the Herbert River. 



Messrs E J. Cairn and Robert Grant procured this species while collecting on behalf of the 

 Trustees of the Australian Museum, near Cairns, Queensland, and the latter has given me the 

 following noies:--Tanysiptcya sylma although nowhere numerous, we found in pairs all through 

 the coasul scrubs and especially in the vicinity of creeks, each pair seeming to have a chosen 

 haunt of its own. It is a very pretty sight to see them fly across an open part of the scrub, when 

 their coral-red bills and the long white feathers of their tail show to advantage. Their cry is not 

 unlike that of Halcyon sanctus. I saw a pair of these birds flying backwards and forwards to a 

 Termites' nest, not on the ground, but high up in a tree. As I presumed they were nesting in it, 

 I did not disturb them. The stomachs examined contained principally the remains of beetles 

 and other insects. We did not meet with this species on the mountain ranges." 



Mr H G Barnard, of Bimbi, Duaringa, Queensland, sends me the following note :-" When 

 collecting on Cape York Peninsula in 1896 and 1897, I ^und Tanysipteva sylvia in large numbers. 

 They arrive at Somerset about the end of October and all through November in hundreds. In 

 conversation with members of the Pearling Fleets, who have splendid opportunities of observing 

 the flic^ht across Torres Strait to the mainland, they told me that for weeks, and all day 

 long different species of birds were seen in flocks and singly, battling their way across. Large 

 numbers of them, when tired, especially the Kingfishers, fly close to the water and get wet with 

 the spray and fall into the sea. I was informed the death rate from this cause alone must be 

 enormous That great numbers reach the land safely the following will shew :-In fourteen days 

 I took thirty five nests, each containing a full set of three eggs. The White-tailed Kingfisher 

 breeds in the Termites' mounds, only in the scrubs, not in the forest country, both on the 

 ground and in the trees. They commence to breed towards the end of November, the breeding 

 season continuing until the end of February. In April hardly a bird is left by the end of that 

 month." 



From the preceding notes it may be gathered that for the purposes of breeding, although it 

 usually tunnels a hole in a small Termites' nest on the ground and deposits its eggs in an 



