THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



their nests with. On the upper surface of a branch of a small 

 tree the Podargus, Podargus strigoides, had its nest, but with 

 only one egg in ; the other we found lying broken on the ground 

 underneath the nest ; the structure was very shallow, and the bird 

 could have easily rolled its egg out accidentally. It is wonderful 

 how few eggs are knocked out of the nests by the parent birds, 

 especially when we consider of what a flimsy character many of 

 the pigeons' and doves' nests are ; yet the birds fly on and off the 

 nest without upsetting the eggs. We watched a Whistling Eagle 

 settle on a tree, and immediately a pair of Collared Butcher Birds 

 and several Minahs, which probably had nests in the vicinity, 

 attacked it and succeeded in driving it off. After flying for some 

 distance the eagle alighted on another tree, when a pair of 

 Magpies went for it, giving it no peace until it had again to shift 

 its quarters, and it probably met with the same opposition further 

 on. 



I left the station for Rockhampton without having secured the 

 sought-after snakes, as a flood had occurred shortly before my 

 arrival, and the reptiles had shifted their quarters, so we could 

 not find their whereabouts. An eye-witness described to me a 

 fight he had once witnessed between two of these snakes, each 

 about ten feet long ; they fought with great fury until killed by 

 the onlooker. They have the local reputation of being venomous, 

 but are really not so, and kill their prey of opossums, bandicoots, 

 &c, by constriction, and, like many other constricting snakes, 

 generally seem to secure their food in the evening or night, and 

 to lie in hollow logs or crab-holes during the day. At Rock- 

 hampton the pretty Bee Birds, llerops ornatus, were very 

 numerous ; they had just arrived from the north, and were 

 commencing to burrow out their nests, seeming to prefer a slight 

 incline in sandy soil. 



I left for Townsville in the s.s. Peregrine, arriving there on the 

 29th, and as the Peregrine did not proceed further, was detained 

 there a short time waiting for the Cintra to take me on to Cook- 

 town. While there I paid an interesting visit to Mr. B. Gulliver's 

 pretty gardens at Acacia Vale, the popular resort of the townspeople, 

 and noticed several nests of the Bicheno Finch, Estrilda bichenovii, 

 or, as it is called there, the Double-bar Finch, each having three 

 white eggs ; these little birds build in the trees of the gardens, 

 and seem far from shy. I also walked through the scrub to 

 Cape Marlow, eight miles from the town, and on the way found 

 the nest, with two brown eggs, of the pretty little Sun Bird, 

 Cinmyris frenala, hanging from the dead branch of an acacia tree, 

 about ten feet from the ground. Growing on the hot sandy soil 

 were a few gourds — they are often used by the blacks to carry 

 water in. I noticed also a good many Honeyeaters, but we 

 were evidently too early for their nests, as none were found. The 



