154 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



16. Le Souef's Trip to North Queensland. 



[A Trip to North Queensland. By D. Le Souef. Victorian Naturalist, 

 xi. p. 3.] 



Mr. Le Souef has given the members of the Field Naturalists' 

 Club of Victoria a lively and interesting account of his 

 recent trip to Northern Queensland. The particular object 

 of the expedition was to procure living specimens of the 

 Tree-Kangaroo [Dendrolagus bennettianus) and other animals 

 for the Melbourne Zoological Gardens, but special attention 

 was evidently also given to birds and their nests^ and much 

 information was obtained on this subject. 



Mr. Le Souef's first halting-place was at Mr. Barnard's 

 Station near Rockhampton, where it was hoped to obtain 

 examples of a rare snake {Aspidistes melanocephalus). Al- 

 though unsuccessful in this, Mr. Le Souef found a lot of 

 birds nesting, Podargus strigoides, Pachycephala melanura, 

 and Psephotus pulcherrimus. The last-named bores holes 

 into the white ants' mounds, and forms a chamber in the 

 interior for its five white eggs, being the only Australian 

 Parrot with this peculiar habit. 



After short stays at Townsville, where Estrelda bichenovii 

 and Cinnyris frenata were found breeding, and Cooktown, 

 where other good observations were made, Mr. Le Souef 

 started for Bloomfield, some 30 miles further up the coast, in 

 a cutter, and arrived at Mr. Hislop's Station, Wyalla, about 

 five miles ofi'. Several pages are devoted to the author's 

 notes and discoveries in this district, which appears to offer 

 excellent collecting-ground for the naturalist. The house is 

 placed on rising ground five miles from the sea, '' with low- 

 lying, open, forest-land intervening," while high mountain- 

 ranges of scrub mixed with large trees adjoin it at the back. 

 The Scrub-Turkey {Talegalla lathami) is plentiful on the 

 range, while the Scrub-Hen [Megapodius tumulus) makes its 

 much larger mounds in the coast district. Amongst other 

 rarities the beautiful Pigeon, Ptilopus superbus, a Rifle- 

 bird {Ptilorhis victorice), Myzomela obscura, and Pitta 

 strepitans were found breeding. Tanysiptei'a sylvia arrives 

 in October, and bores its nest-holes in the termites' mounds. 



