THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 17 



Astur Xovo-Hollandia, and it looked very pretty against the dark 

 background of a scrub-covered mountain. I was fortunate in 

 securing a clutch of two eggs of the Australian Goshawk, Astur 

 approximans, not very far from the house. It had built up an old 

 nest of last year. A pair of Goshawks, Astur cruentus, were often 

 seen in the neighbourhood, but we could not discover their nest. 

 I only secured two specimens of owls in the scrubs — one the large, 

 dark-coloured Rufous Owl, Athene rufa, which was roosting during 

 the day in some very thick scrub, but flew to a short distance 

 away on our passing underneath, and so made its presence known. 

 A Sooty Owl, Strix tenebricosus, was found in a similar way, and 

 when shot we noticed it had lost every feather of its tail, and was 

 altogether in a ragged condition. Half an egg shell was given 

 me, which the blacks said belonged to the Powerful Owl, Athene 

 strenua, and had been thrown out of the nest when the young 

 birds hatched, but I did not see the bird myself. On the coast, 

 about six miles from the house, very few sea birds were to be 

 seen, they had apparently all gone to the outlying islands to 

 breed on the mud flats. Pelicans, Pelecanus conspicillatus, 

 •Curlews, Numenius Australis, and a few waders were seen. The 

 Pelicans are said to breed on the Hope Islands, and on a sand- 

 bank not far from there I saw hundreds of Crested Terns, Sterna 

 media, nesting, but was unable to land. In the scrubs pigeons 

 were very numerous, especially the Torres Straits Pigeons, Gar- 

 pophaga luctuosa, which were often seen in large flocks flying to 

 roost on the islands in the evening and returning in the morning. 

 On the Hope Islands many hundreds were busy hatching and 

 rearing their young, but few seemed to lay on the mainland. 

 We only found one nest, high up in a large tree, with one fresh 

 egg in. Out of the many hundreds I have seen I have never 

 found more than one egg in any nest. The Allied Fruit Pigeon, 

 Carpophaga assimilis, was often heard uttering its curious guttural 

 double note in the leafy tops of the high trees, but though often 

 heard it was seldom seen ; we found several of their nests, each 

 of which had one egg in. The frail structures were often built 

 on thin boughs overhanging the streams, and the birds were 

 easily disturbed by anyone passing near the tree containing their 

 nests, which otherwise would probably not have been noticed. 

 Near the creeks, both in the open and scrub lands, but 

 more often in the latter, we saw the Long-billed Green 

 Ground Pigeon, Chalcophaps longirostris, and found its nest, and 

 one egg, on a small tree on the banks of a stream. When 

 camped on the banks of the Annan River, in the ranges, we 

 were fortunate in finding the beautiful Superb Fruit Pigeon 

 Ftilinopus superbvs, and secured a specimen as it sat on its 

 nest, getting the egg uninjured. Two more nests were found on 

 the top of a range in the vicinity, both built within ten feet of the 



