260 Jackson, Discovery of the Female Rufous Scrub-Bird. [,,f'T„.ii 



and Bird-nest Ferns, also lichens and mosses, &c., were in great 

 profusion, forming a most wonderful and beautiful sight, notwith- 

 standing the drought. Here for the first time the magnificent 

 Flame Tree {Br achy chiton acerifolia), and Tree Waratah or Red 

 Silky Oak {Embothrium wickhami, var. pinnata) came under my 

 notice and in full mass of blossom. Both grow to a large size, 

 especially the former, which we met with up to four feet in diameter, 

 and over a hundred feet high. The Tree Waratah we found grow- 

 ing up to 18 inches in diameter and 70 feet or more high. It has 

 a large but much flatter and different flower from that of the New 

 South Wales shrub species, nevertheless it is very beautiful. The 

 Flame Tree is semi-deciduous, and when coming into blossom 

 usually loses all its leaves ; the flower is flame or coral-red and 

 bell-shaped, measuring nearly an inch long by over half an inch 

 across. The contrast of the great masses of flame-coloured blos- 

 soms of these trees standing out against the various tinges of 

 green in the scrub is wonderfully fine. The tree belongs to the 

 Bottle-tree {Sterculiacea) family. 



Birds of various species were plentiful, but the scarcity of Scrub- 

 Turkeys (Catheturus lathami) was particularly noticeable, owing no 

 doubt to the dry state of the ground in the tall scrub, as their food 

 supply is chiefly obtained from under damp masses of leaves and 

 bark on the ground. One of their large nests, which consist of 

 a mound of leaves and debris, in which the large white eggs are 

 deposited for incubation, was found on the east side at the base 

 of a giant Scrub Box-Tree (Tristania conferta) near a small creek. 

 The birds had built the nest on the ground inside the hollow 

 portion of this tree, as my photograph (Plate XLIX.) will show — 

 certainly a most unusual position. Many of their old nests were 

 met with. The scrub was tall, and many trees towered up for 

 a hundred feet or more ; the vines and undergrowth beneath were 

 so dense in many places that it was quite impossible to penetrate 

 without chopping one's way with a brush-hook all the time. It 

 was in such a dense place that I wished to go and carry out my 

 special work, and nothing pleased me more than to meet with the 

 Rufous Scrub-Bird or Atrichornis there, for I heard the male bird 

 calling, hidden under the great masses of fallen trees and vines, 

 all dead and huddled together in a great heap representing many 

 tons, and under which this small non-flying bird lives like a 

 " feathered mouse." When a large tree in the scrub falls it brings 

 tons of other stuff with it, as well as masses of vines, &c. ; when 

 all this dies then the Atrichornis lives underneath it, and makes it 

 his or her home, and often many hours or days of great patience 

 have to be spent to get even a " glimpse" of the bird. I was excited, 

 as there were great hopes of securing the elusive female, which 

 was the chief object of the expedition, and which so far was not 

 represented in any collection in the world, although slie had been 

 searched for by various persons since 1865, when the first male 

 specimens were procured by Messrs. J. F. Wilcox and J. Mac- 

 gillivray in the Richmond River scrubs of New South Wales. 



