THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 169 



as did the fleshy parts surrounding it. The bill also assumed a 

 darker colour on that side. Was the inflammation from the 

 wound the reason for such change of colour ? Yesterday the 

 colours seemed to be fading again, and will, I think, soon regain 

 their normal tint. That all birds' colours are not fixed is proved 

 by the fact that the white will come off a freshly killed White 

 Cockatoo ; whilst I have read that the Great Scarlet Macaw, if 

 dropped when newly killed into a pool, will stain the water with 

 its own hues." 



Several birds are mentioned as having pleasing song, and that 

 "the whistle of a woodland bird" has still power to make our 

 friend's " pulses dance" is evident from such a passage as the 

 following : — " I learned for the first time soon after coming here 

 that the leaden-coloured Flycatcher had a very sweet voice — faint 

 and low, but full of liquid melody. The bird listened to sat so 

 high in a sheoak tree that one had to 'hearken diligently' not to 

 lose the lower lispings. No doubt he was singing to an unseen 

 mate, but the nest was so cunningly hidden that search was vain. 

 The whistle — warble, one might call it— of that dainty little sprite, 

 the White-eyebrowed Robin, who has been about since July, also 

 struck me as never before — short, rippling notes, that seem to 

 bubble out of a heart overflowing with happiness. He occupies 

 the place of the Yellow Robin in Victoria, and peers and pries 

 about with the same fearless persistency. The song of the 

 Queensland Shrike Thrush, a bird resembling the Victorian 

 Harmonious Thrush (Colluricincla harmonica), but smaller, is 

 not quite so full and rounded, nor yet so sustained as that of the 

 southern bird ; but it appears richer in melody, more sonorous, 

 and somehow suggestive of tropical voluptuousness." 



Snakes abound as early as September ; deat adders being also 

 noted as having a nasty habit of lying upon garden paths or 

 tracks at night. Concerning the snakes captured no information 

 has come to hand save the remark that one is " a large and 

 rather rare snake, about 7 feet long, of a light colour, marked 

 with black bands, but its most prominent feature is its head, 

 which is jet black. The black not only covers the head, but 

 extends about two inches down the back." Mr. Frost, who has 

 kindly taken the trouble to examine the specimens forwarded, 

 has identified this reptile, of which the head only has been sent, 

 as Aspidiotes melanocephalus, commonly known as the Black- 

 headed Snake (non-venomous), of which Mr. Le Souef brought 

 back a live specimen on his return from Queensland. A Carpet 

 Snake (Morelia variegata) ; a Rock Snake, very similar in 

 appearance to the Carpet Snake, but stouter (Nardoa, sp.) ; a 

 very dark green Tree Snake, found also in Victoria ( Dendrophis 

 punctulata) and a Brown Tree Snake (Dipsas fusca) ; a Black 

 and White Ringed Snake, found also in Victoria ( Ver micella 



