THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



purplish lines. There is no doubt the colours of these lilies 

 (grown on one plant) vary according to the age of the flowers. 

 When they first expand they are of a pale indefinite blue, which 

 gradually intensifies, and fades through changing tints of pink. 

 I think that in Queensland we have three distinct species of 

 water-lilies. In the Ross River a pink one is quite plentiful." 

 (I may here remind members that Mr. Bayley catalogues three 

 Nymphseas as growing in Northern Queensland — a pure while- 

 flowered species, a smaller one of purplish colour, and a third — 

 blue — which he takes to be JV. ccerulea. There is also the pink 

 water-lily, Nelumbium speciosum, the Lily of the Nile.) "The 

 flower stems grow to an almost incredible length, and I look 

 shudderingly back to a day when one entwined its slimy folds 

 about my legs whilst bathing, and gave me a hard struggle to 

 gain the bank. Careful measurement showed that stem to be 

 15 feet long. 



"At almost any time of day an Azure Kingfisher, Alcyone 

 azurea, may be found on one of the lower branches of the 

 spreading fig tree. He watches for fish, and when one is secured 

 betakes himself to a shelving bank beneath the Leichardt Tree, 

 between whose roots fishbones fairly litter the bank. Several 

 half-eaten fish prove that food is not scarce to-day. A White- 

 breasted Sea Eagle, Haliaetus leucosternus, with bright chocolate 

 back and throat, used often to sit upon the topmost bough of the 

 last-named tree, but disappeared for some time. One day, about 

 Christmas time, when my patience had become exhausted by the 

 continuous rain, I wandered down by the brown, swollen waters 

 of the creek, and spent some time in following a specimen of this 

 bird for nearly a mile through the sodden grass. The chase was 

 unavailing ; but the bird looked so handsome, sitting on the very 

 top of a very tall gum, that the memory of his appearance almost 

 compensates for the loss of his skin. The wild flowers were some 

 compensation also. Amongst the tall grass the scarlet Hibiscus 

 shone like a ball of fire, whilst white ("Wild Rosella," H. 

 heterophyllus) and yellow (//. tiUaceus) varieties were also noticed. 

 The great cup-shaped blooms of the Native Convolvulus were 

 abundant, and seemed to have gained a waxy appearance from 

 the rain. The orchids on the giant titree had already thrown 

 long arms into the moist air, Dendrobiuvi undulatum being the 

 most common sort here. Over a stunted Melaleuca a climbing 

 pea, whose perfume (reminding one of daphne) made its presence 

 known before the blooms were visible, was growing and flowering 

 luxuriantly. The flower is very pretty — light pink, with a tendency 

 to mauve, and streaked with hair-like white lines. A beautiful 

 yellow blossom, like a gaillardia, showed star-like from the grass 

 on every side." 



(To be co/itiiiucd.) 



