26 Berney, Drought and Flood in Queensland. [zncT'juiy 



Drought and Flood in Queensland. 



An Ornithologist's Experience. 



The following strongly contrasted extracts are from letters by 

 Mr. F. L. Berney, A.O.U., written from Spring Valley, Hugh- 

 enden, N.Q., and received by one of the editors of The Emu: — 



''''24th November, 1905. — 1 am camped out away with some of our sheep, 

 and there is no chance of getting home (to Richmond, N.Q.) until early in 

 the year. We are having a wretched time out here with the drought ; 

 things ornithologically in this district are dead. Nesting with most species 

 of birds that we have here is out of the question ; it takes them all their time 

 to keep themselves alive. The Emus were the first to feel it, and most 

 about here are now dead ; the Bustards were the next, and many of these 

 are now too weak to fly. 1 caught two last week ; unable to fly, they tried 

 to run, and fell at the first little bit of obstruction they came to, and lay 

 there until I set them on their legs again. I picked up a dead Dollar-Bird ; 

 they have not long been here. This one was in perfect plumage, showing 

 that it had arrived in good health ; but it had died of starvation, and was 

 only a feathered skeleton. The bush cats (domestic breed gone wild) on 

 the open downs are dying, I believe, of hunger ; there are no birds on the 

 bare, brown country, and no grasshoppers or lizards or mice as a substitute." 



Again : 



"24//; Marcli, 1906. — I have not troubled you much lately, not because I 

 had nothing to trouble you about, but because I had not the time to do it. 

 We had an awfully bad time all last year — drought, everlasting drought ; 

 but with the advent of the new year there came a change, and we have 

 already had 20 inches of the best rain we have had for 15 or 16 years. I 

 look forward to a season (the longer the better) of peace and prosperity — we 

 are due for it after 8 years— 8 bad years in succession. I cannot consider 

 my own good times as commencing until I get settled down again at 

 Wyangarie (Richmond), which I hope will be in about two or three weeks' 

 time. Part of my sheep are gone, and the balance start away in a couple 

 of days, and then I shall shake the dust of these parts from my feet. There 

 has not been much dust lately ; my own camp, placed on a well-drained 

 sand ridge high up on the river bank (Flinders), was under water for a 

 couple of days. The diningroom (table under a bough shade) stood in 2 feet 

 of water, and the river ran a foot deep through the tents — however, all's 

 well that ends well." 



From Magazines, &c. 



Rufous Bristle-Bird. — In the March number of TJie 

 Geciong Naturalist are field notes by Mr. C. F. Belcher on the 

 Rufous Bristle-Bird {Sphenura broadbcnti), dealing chiefly with 

 the nidification of the species and its distribution on the Otway 

 coast. 



Height at which Migrating Birds Fly. — In TJie Auk 

 for January is a paper by Mr. Frederic W. Carpenter, which 

 sums up the results obtained from attempts to gauge by astro- 

 nomical instruments the height at which birds fly when on 

 migration. The highest distance yet noted would seem to be 



