-J2 Alstin, Xoies on Bit'ds fvum Talbragar River, A'..S'.ir. [,,,''''j",iy 



Bkil-eatek {Merops ornatus). — Arriving in September, they soon set 

 lo work at their tunnels in the sandy soil, where large numbers of 

 them breed. Amongst all the birds that visit us there are few, if any, 

 more beautiful than the Bee-eater, especially their graceful movements 

 of a bright spring day ; their gold and green colouring flashing in the 

 sun shows the bird off to great advantage. 



An Ex- Victorian Collector's Experience. 



From Seattle via Vancouver to Yokohama across the Pacific 

 there is nothing of consequence to mention excepting a com- 

 paratively pleasant ocean journey in one of the faiTious 

 "Empress" liners. The ten days' stay at Yokohama, and 

 partly spent at the capital of Japan, Tokio, naturally, too, belong 

 to the few of the more agreeable experiences of a half-the-globe- 

 round journey. So might be classed the trip by rail and steam- 

 boat to the island of Hokaido, in the north of Japan, to the 

 famous and now historic port of Hakotaite, from whence the 

 bulk of the Japanese army was conveyed to Corea during the 

 war. A ten days' halt there, on account of bad weather 

 delaying our specially chartered steamer Stepney, afforded an 

 opportunity for a closer acquaintance with the Japs and their 

 ways, mingled with a fair dose already of serious business in the 

 shape of repacking, &c. l^>om thence, on arrival of the slow 

 but sure " tub," our party got under way and steam, coaling for 

 the last time on the extreme north of the island, previous to 

 plunging into the northern Pacific, towards our erstwhile goal, 

 Kamtchatka. 



The two days' stoppage afforded an excellent opportunity 

 for making the acquaintance of those primitive peoples, the 

 Ainos, who dwell in hovels here — an ancient Mongolian race, 

 allied to the Samoyedes in the north of Siberia, whose female 

 relations tattoo moustaches on their upper lips. Petropaulovski, 

 a small settlement on Kamtchatka, historically made famous 

 and called into existence through the great, intrepid late Com. 

 Behring, Capt. Cherikoff, and 'the ill-fated naturalist Steller, 

 previous to their setting out for the discovery of the mysterious 

 Arctic continent, was reached after i6 days' hard struggle with 

 the watery elements, by shaping a course parallel to the chain- 

 like islands of the Lopatkas, which connect the north of Japan 

 with the Peninsula, and form the eastern limits of the Okotsk 

 Sea. During this transit our first misadventure — blowing a 

 hole out of the only boiler— happened, the mending of which 

 accounted for drifting helplessly about for two days and nights. 



After final preparations, and the engagement of two Russians 

 to act as hunters and guides, we steamed farther north, about 60 

 miles along the coast, that looked very much refrigerated at this 



