14 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



kinds were, of course, everywhere, both in the open forest land and 

 in the scrub, and were just as bad in the house as the European 

 rat is ; nothing could be left about that they could possibly eat. 

 If they found an egg they would quickly make a hole in it and 

 devour the contents. We had two of different species in confine- 

 ment, but getting together the larger, Hapalotis hirsutus, soon, 

 unfortunately, killed the smaller, Hapalotis hemileucura. The 

 rats often climb up the grenadilla vines and devour the fruit 

 when ripe or nearly so ; very little seems to come amiss to them. 

 The larger of the two above referred to I brought on alive to 

 Melbourne. In the scrub one often found the hard native 

 almond gnawed through by these animals to get at the kernel 

 inside. I heard the melancholy howl of the Dingo, Canis dingo, 

 on one occasion only, and the night following it took a turkey 

 from close to the house and devoured it. Flying Foxes, Pteropus 

 funereus, are numerous all over this country, and were frequently 

 heard squealing at night when feeding on the eucalyptus 

 blossom ; they appear to chew the flower up to get at the honey 

 inside. I saw a few camped on a high tree in the scrub, hanging 

 on by the claws of their hind feet. They often seemed busily en- 

 gaged in cleaning or scratching themselves, and occasionally flew 

 from one branch to another, but I saw no large rookery, such as I 

 had seen in the mangroves on the banks of the Fitzroy River, not 

 far from its delta, where many thousands of Pteropus camped, flying 

 off as evening approached to their various feeding grounds, and 

 passing high overhead in countless numbers. The quantity of fruit 

 eaten and destroyed by so many must be enormous. Crocodiles, 

 Crocodilus porosus, live in all the tidal rivers here, but are seldom 

 seen. A black boy had been killed by one on the Bloomfield 

 River shortly before my arrival. In Queensland they are always 

 called Alligators. Not long ago 72 eggs were taken from one nest 

 in the dry sand on a small island in the Endeavour River, not far 

 from Cooktovvn. The small species, Crocodilus Johnsonii, is not 

 found here. Domestic pigs, gone wild, are also numerous and 

 very destructive to vegetable and other gardens if they get the 

 chance. They live on roots, wild fruits, &c, &c. Pandanus 

 Palms are often destroyed by them, and they never neglect to 

 root up and take the eggs out of any Talegalla or Megapode's 

 nest they come across. 



I only saw three Carpet Snakes, Morelia variegala, during my 

 visit. One about 11 feet long we caught, and placing it in an old 

 sugar mat, carried it off. On the way we stopped to gather a few 

 quandongs and left the snake in the bag on the track, but on 

 coming back a few minutes after we found she had made a hole 

 in the bottom of the bag and was half-way out ; we soon got her 

 back, however, and, carrying her to the house, placed her in a 

 box. A few days afterwards she laid about 12 eggs, and carefully 



