460 Mr. C. Ingram on the Birds of 



round the station-buildings when I was there. Finding 

 them wild and somewhat difficult to approach, I unfortunately 

 did not trouble to shoot one for identification. The 

 Squatter Pigeon {Geophaps scripta) was also fairly common, 

 while Cockatoos {Cacatua galerita) were not unfrequently 

 encountered. 



Approximately situate in lat, 20° S. by long. 147° E., 

 Inkerman Station lies some fifty miles to the south-west of 

 Townsville, and is about ten miles from the banks of the 

 Burdekiu — a river, in 1902, reduced to a few pools of 

 brackish water, but which, I am told, at certain seasons 

 carries a fine volume of water. 



After a rainltss spell of many months' duration — it was 

 several years since there had been a normal rainfall — the 

 country was terribly parched and dry when I visited it, 

 as is shown by the following remarks transcribed from my 

 journal: — "As one looks over the stretch of dead, bleached 

 grass-stems, the atmosphere shimmers in the noonday suu 

 almost as it would upon a desert and, with the exception 

 of the tree-foliage, tiiere is absolutely no verdure to be seen. 

 Generally speaking, the district is flat, but in several 

 quarters a single hill or small range of hills show abruptly 

 above the level, and these appear to be more or less uniformly 

 covered with trees and scrub. 



" Most of the level country is also covered with an open 

 lorest, but in many places the gum-trees are very thinly 

 scattered over the ground. The two commonest species, 

 ana tiiose that give character to the landscape, are the 

 Moreton Bay ash and the blood-wood ; the former being by 

 far the most numerous. But here and there are also trees 

 of other kinds — the pandanus, leichhardt, acacia, bottle- 

 tree, and others ; although of course the typical Eucalypti 

 always predominate. Situated at wide intervals over nearly 

 the whole station are narrow sheets of water — ' lagoons,' as 

 they are locally termed. These are often deep and sunk 

 between steep banks, and not a few are thickly overgrown 

 with blue water-lilies or with the more luxuriant lotus-lily.'' 



Mr. Stalker also collected birds on Mount Elliot, near 

 Townsville, and on Mount Abbot, in the Bowen district. 



