Birds of Qiicciislaiid . 115 



plain turkey is also everywhere, from the far west ]ilains to the 

 islands aloni;' the co.lst. and north to Cape ^'ork. 



I have seen thetn south of the Kower Paroo, and north of 

 the Duchess River. The native companion, jabiroo. nankeen 

 heron, the redbill, the black and white .s.;ooda extend from 

 south to north. ( )ur friend the laui^hiiiia jackass is unknown in 

 far western Oueensland, and so are the bandicoot and kant^aroo 

 rat. The swan is not seen north of the Burdekin, but he i^oes 

 west into the lakes of Central .\ustralia. We have only one of 

 the three lyre birds (Mciiitra .Mbcrti). and 'he is not reported 

 north of Tambourine Mountain, thouii'h blacks have told me he 

 is in the scrubs of the Bunya Mountains. He is the shyest of all 

 our birds. The black, and wood ducks, the whistler, and the 

 piji^my .^"oose .^o north to near Cape York. 



The first Ouensland bird killed by a white man was a bus- 

 tard, wei^hiuij;' \y lbs., shot by one of Captain Cook's men a 

 Bustard Head in 1770. 



The South (Jueenslantl rifle bird is unknown in the north. 

 The X'ictoria rifle bird is not found south of the Her- 

 bert River, where I shot a cou|)le for the Museum in icSr/j. 



'The stone plover (ni^ht curlew I, and sjiur-win^L;' ])lover 

 arc from south to north. 



( )nly in the Museum can the vast majority of the people 

 see the Queensland birds, as they ha\e no chance of seeing' more 

 than a fraction of them alive. Most mournful of all is the in- 

 evitable fate of our scrub birds, which have to perish with the 

 scrubs. The scrul) turkey, the wonga, and all the fruit-eating 

 pigeons are doomed, except where they may be preserved by 

 protection in bird reserves, and we want these reserves, numer- 

 ous and extensive, and under laws mercilessly stringent. 



The Lamington Plateau reserve of 40,000 acres is a 

 noble beginning, and should be followed at once by Stradbroke, 

 I'raser's Island, and the South Keppel. 



\'ery singular is the fact that the wonga and the scrub 

 turkey are unknown in the magnificent scrub on Fraser's Island, 

 though common on the adjoining mainland. The mound 

 building scrul) hen of Xorth Oueensland is unknown anywhere 

 south. The Torres Straits pigeon has been seen south of 

 Broadsound. 



