THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 15 



SOME NATURAL HISTORY NOTES FROM TOWNS- 



VILLE, QUEENSLAND. 



Compiled by H. Kendall. 



(Continued from page 7.) 



"A pair of little Mangrove Bitterns built near the pool, and a 

 couple of Crested Hawks lingered about the gardens for many 

 weeks, but vanished without nesting — I fear the gardener could 

 tell why. He takes a practical view of things, and reckons 

 chickens far ahead of science. By the edge of the pond at night 

 Southern Stone Plovers, (Edicnemus grcdlarius, hold revels, 

 making the bush ring with their yells. They often come close to 

 our door, but morning drives them to their haunts among the 

 grass." 



Orioles also frequent the pool : " A nest hangs on a Sheoak 

 bough, and a few weeks ago — this would mean October- 

 November — was tenanted by three young Orioles. They have 

 since taken to their wings, but the old home remains, with that 

 appearance of loneliness about it which one finds in an empty 

 house. There is now no clamour of hungry little ones, no angry 

 cry of anxious mother as the men working in the garden approach 

 to what she considers dangerous limits. In times of drought 

 the White Ibis, Threskiornis strictipennis, comes here — in company 

 with the Yellow-Legged Spoonbill, Platylea Jlavipes, and the 

 White Crane — to feed about the margin of the water. Their 

 snow-white plumage contrasts well with the dark shadows and 

 the bright colours of the water-lilies. A Black-eared Cuckoo, 

 Mesocalius pcdliolatus, lives in the top of the Leichardt Tree. 

 Day and night his melancholy voice is lifted up, and if he sleeps 

 at all it must be just when I do ; at all other times he may be 

 heard. The Spotted Bower Bird comes to the garden to feed 

 upon small tomatoes and the chilies. The latter are grown as 

 food for fowls, and when swallowed whole are not hot, so the 

 meal is not so strange as it sounds. The Bower Bird also loves 

 the guavas and other fruits, especially those of a bright colour, so 

 war is declared against him. Some half-mile from here these 

 birds have, like the legendary Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, ' biggit 

 a bower on yon burn-brae ' — the ' burn-brae ' being on a small 

 branch of this creek. 



" On the other side of the pool, affixed to a branch over- 

 hanging the water, but very high up, is the mud nest of the Pied 

 Grallina, Grallina picata. The mud hereabouts contains so 

 large a proportion of sand that the birds have had to use an 

 unusual quantity of grass to bind it together, the ends of which 

 stick out on every side. The complaining cry of these birds is 

 almost incessant. When the Melaleuca was in bloom I noted 

 many honey-eaters by this pool, amongst them one, Myzomela 

 sanguinoJenta, with bright crimson head and shoulders ; the 



