Art. III. — Nest and Egg of Queen Victoria s Rifle Bird 

 {Ptilorhis Victorice). 



(With Plate I.) 



By D. Le Souef. 



[Read March 9, 1892] 



The nest and egg of the Victoria rifle bird here depicted, 

 was taken on one of the Barnard I.slands by Mr. H. Barnard 

 and myself. We visited tliese islands on November 18, 1891. 

 in quest of the egg of this bird, and built our small humpy 

 about eight feet from a screw palm (Pandanus aquaticus), 

 which grew just above high water mark. We saw a pair 

 of rifle birds in some light scrub close by our camp, and they 

 seemed very fearless, the hen bird especially so. Next 

 morning was spent in searching over this interesting and 

 densely timbered island, but without success. During the 

 afternoon, however, we determined to watch the hen bird, 

 which was seen on a tree close by, and so posted ourselves 

 one on each side of the aforementioned patch of sscrub. 

 The bird had some moss in her bill, which she kept dropping 

 and catching again before it reached the ground, and we 

 naturally thought she was building, but presently she darted 

 down into the scrub close by Mr. Barnard. In a few 

 minutes he saw her fly into the screw palm by our camp, in 

 which we found she had her nest. The nest itself which was 

 built near the crown of the tree about seven feet from the 

 ground, not being visible, and all we could see was the head 

 of the bird. She continued sitting most of the next day, 

 having ap{)arently become accustomed to our presence. 



We then took the nest and found it contained only one 

 iigg, which was hard set, the chick being about seven days 

 old. The nest was built principally of vine tendrils and 

 leaves rather loosely put together (Plate I). 



