10 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



often camp here. We got a nice specimen of the hanging wasp's 

 nest, but first drove the owners off by burning the long dry grass 

 underneath the bush it was on; several hawks, being attracted by 

 the fire, came flying round to pick up the insects and small 

 animals disturbed or destroyed by it. We saw some bare-looking 

 Cotton Trees with large green pods, which when ripe dry to a dark 

 brown colour, and open, when the cotton soon falls out. There 

 was also a kind of native fig tree covered with very small fruit, 

 which when ripe is of a dark purplish colour and is readily eaten by 

 the natives and European children, but it has very little taste. 

 The Hoya, or Wax Creeper, then in flower, was very plentiful, 

 hanging from the scrub trees ; there were two kinds — one pure 

 white, with a delightful perfume, and the other a darker colour 

 with no scent. The Endeavour River is thickly lined with man- 

 groves on each side for some distance from its mouth, and is the 

 favourite haunt of the Crocodile, Crocodilus porosus ; crabs also 

 are very numerous, some of a bright purple colour. The man- 

 grove roots next the river were in many places covered with small 

 oysters, above low water mark. A pair of White-bellied Sea 

 Eagles, Hallaetus leucogaster, were seen sailing over the river, 

 when one suddenly came down, and, catching a fair-sized fish, 

 flew off with it to a tall dead tree. On a small tract of scrub- 

 covered sand near the bank of the river we found the mound of a 

 Megapode, made under a thick tangled mass of creeper, and 

 although the mound was about three feet high, with a diameter at 

 the base of ten feet, it was difficult to detect among the creepers. 

 We opened it up, but found that the eggs had not yet been laid ; 

 centipedes, lizards, and snakes often make their home and lay 

 their eggs in these nests — for the sake of the warmth, I presume. 

 Shortly after we had opened up the Scrub Hen's nest and had 

 camped for lunch I noticed my companion looking rather uneasy, 

 and soon found that a fair-sized lizard had run up his leg ; he 

 gave a sigh of relief when he found out what it really was. 



Near the town a good deal of mangrove has been cut down for 

 firewood, and, as it burns freely and well, is much used. The 

 tide runs very strongly in and out of the river, and is very hard to 

 pull a boat against. Near the foot of Mt. Cook I noticed several 

 large earthenware jars full of human bones, generally placed at the 

 base of large granite rocks, and found out that after a Chinaman 

 had been buried some time his bones were dug up, placed in a 

 jar, and exposed to the weather for about a year, before they were 

 shipped to China. 



I started for Bloomfield in a small cutter, the distance by sea 

 being about thirty miles. On the way down we passed close to 

 the Hope Islands and saw on them thousands of Torres Straits 

 Pigeons, Carpophaga luctuosa ; also numerous sea birds on the 

 beach, but as the latter had not commenced laying we did not 



