THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 25 



White Ibis, White-fronted Herons, Ardea Novce-IIollandice, 

 Egrets, Herodias melanopus, Red-necked Avocets, and a flock of 

 Barred-shouldered Doves were noticed feeding over the swampy 

 ground. Some old nests of the herons were observed in the 

 trees on the edge of the swamp, but no fresh ones. On this 

 particular shore a great quantity of driftwood has been cast up 

 by the sea, far more than I have noticed elsewhere. There were 

 a few shells. On returning up the river plenty of fish were seen, 

 some of the mullet being very large, and occasionally when 

 passing over a shallow sand bar a Stinging Ray would glide away 

 over the sand. Our black boy was on the look-out for them, but 

 did not succeed in spearing any ; he was also bringing back with 

 him a cooked White Ibis, to eat when sufficiently hungry. 

 Bright metallic green blow-flies were plentiful, but their larvae 

 were deposited in egg form, fortunately, and it was some little 

 time before they commenced to crawl about. When the natives' 

 food gets fly-blown they put it on the fire to destroy the larvse. 

 Small black mosquitos were troublesome, and a flock of Shining 

 Calornis were observed feeding among the mangroves. We looked 

 out for crocodiles, but none were seen. 



Next day I went over to Toolgoor, about four miles, to see Mr. 

 Cochrane. A black boy went with me as a guide. It was an 

 interesting walk, being partly through scrub. One very large 

 mcund of a Megapode was passed and photographed. It was 

 about 9 ft. high and 20 ft. in diameter at the base. An 

 Allied Fruit Pigeon was noticed building its frail nest near the 

 end of a thin branch. There being practically no wind in the 

 scrub, pigeons can build their nests on thinner boughs than they 

 can in the open. The Victoria Rifle Bird was heard on several 

 occasions as we passed by their favourite resting place. Over- 

 hanging a stream two pairs of Large-billed Gerygones, Gerygone 

 magniroslris, had built their nests together, and both nests had 

 eggs in. On passing through a group of Fan Palms we noticed 

 thai all the young ones up to the height of 8 ft. had been 

 destroyed by pigs for the sake of the pith they got inside, the 

 outside wood of the larger trees being too t ;ugh for the animals 

 to break through. Arriving at Toolgoor I was shown the nest of 

 a Sun Bird, Cinnyris frenata, that had two entrances. After the 

 nest had been built, if I remember rightly in an open shed, the 

 cord the nest was built on got turned somehow, and the opening 

 faced the paling fence close to it. As the birds could not get a 

 view of anything that might be approaching them, and being 

 unable to turn the nest back, they set to work and made another 

 opening on the opposite side, out of which the hen bird could 

 put her head when sitting. Another pair of these birds, after 

 hatching and rearing one brood, built another nest in the back 

 verandah, but being frightened away from there they built again 



