THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 9 



handsome Swainson's Graucalus, Graucalus Swainsonii, was also 

 to be seen in the mangroves near the sea, and flies and mosquitoes 

 were very numerous in some places. On the nearly dried up 

 swamps the beautiful White Egret, Herodia alba, Pelicans, 

 Pelecanus conspicillatus, Whistling Eagles, Haliastur sphenurus, 

 Southern Stone Plovers, (Edicnemus grallarius, and Silver Gulls, 

 Laws Novce-Hollandice, were seen, but nowhere were they plentiful. 

 I left by the s.s. Gintra for Cooktown, arriving there on 6th 

 October, and had to wait a few days before an opportunity 

 occurred of proceeding to the Bloomfield River. It was very 

 windy during my stay, which made collecting difficult. On the 

 mangroves bordering a small tidal stream three kinds of shell-fish 

 were found, and one of the small fish that hop about up the 

 banks and on the mangrove roots was caught ; they were very 

 plentiful and very active and seem to live more out of the water 

 than in it. The mangrove sheds its seed in a curious way — the 

 single seed is in the form of a narrow pod, about a foot long ; 

 when full grown it hangs down from the upper branches of the 

 tree, the lower end being the heavier and also pointed, and when 

 ripe falls and sticks into the soft mud below, when roots commence 

 growing out of the lower end and a sort of cap is forced off the 

 top end by the budding sprout ; of course many fall on hard 

 ground or in the deep water, and do not grow. The trees also often 

 send down roots into the soil below from their higher branches, 

 and where the trees are thick form a network difficult to get 

 through ; one rarely needs to tread on the soft muddy ground, but 

 walks on the roots. The ground below generally has numerous 

 small crab holes, and up here the crocodile seems to appreciate 

 the dense shade given by these trees, and the general gloom of a 

 mangrove swamp. In the open country Blue Mountain Parrots, 

 Trichoglossus Novce-LTollandice, and Friar Birds, Philemon cornicu- 

 latus, were very numerous, feeding on the honey of the flower- 

 laden eucalyptus trees, and very noisy the birds were, the parrots 

 especially, as they flew screeching about from one tree to another. 

 I also noticed the little Sun Bird breeding here. In the scrub on 

 Mt. Cook many Lewin's Honeyeaters, Ptilotis Lewinii, were seen, 

 but it was too early for their nests. A Collared Sparrowhawk, 

 Accipiter cirrhocephahis, was shot with a chicken in its claws. 

 When resting near a small pool in the scrub the Honeyeaters and 

 Zosterops came very close, bathing in the clear water. It was 

 very rough climbing over the broken granite rock with which the 

 surface is covered. In company with Mr. E. A. C. Olive, I 

 visited a small cave on the steep side of the hill, formed by huge 

 boulders of granite, and in it caught two kinds of bats — Nycto- 

 philia timorensia and Vesperngo pumulis, as they flew past on 

 being disturbed. Many Mason Wasps had built their mud nests on 

 the lower side of some of the rocks. In the wet season the blacks 



