^"'"'^^iT"^'] I^ODi). -^ Collecting Trip to Herberfon District, N.Q. 141 



little aside. Finally, I saw the eggs, and walked towards 

 them, the bird slowly retreating as I advanced, yet always 

 within six or seven feet of me ; but directly I reached the eggs 

 she, with head bent down, ran quickly away, her mate, who 

 kept further off. joining and running with her : nor would they 

 return, though I stooped over and touched the eggs, they 

 quietly watching me from under a tree some fifty yards away. 

 Next day one egg was chipped, both birds coming close up as 

 usual, and the day after the first chick was out and the other 

 egg chipped ; then I left the devoted birds in peace. 



We had no trouble with snakes, but killed a few. A large 

 black species with greenish abdomen was the only poisonous 

 one we met with, unless we except a seven-inch specimen of the 

 Brown Snake found under a log in grassy country. The 

 slender greenish or yellowish species which frequent shrubs 

 and trees are not worth the trouble of killing. Perhaps they 

 should be destroyed, as they are egg-robbers and bird- 

 murderers. No death-adders were observed, though doubtless 

 they are present in rocky localities. A large grey iguana was 

 seen occasionally, but lizards were generally rare. Centipedes 

 were plentiful ; not so tarantulas and other spiders. 



Altogether, the trip was an interesting and successful one, 

 but I regretted that I was unable to spend six months there 

 instead of three. There are drawbacks, of course : January 

 and February are too rainy to be pleasant, and this year March 

 must have been an unusually wet month ; it is generally referred 

 to by residents as the worst. Mosquitoes were almost entirely 

 absent, and for the first three surnmer months for years I slept 

 without a mosquito-net. No worrying bush-flies in the daytime, 

 but leeches, ticks, and scrub-itch are in strong force, and are ex- 

 cessively annoying. One big striped leech, frequenting the grass 

 near the scrubs and along the watercourses, is extremely active 

 and unusually gluttonous ; its bite often bleeds very freely. One 

 quickly gets to know the nip or feel the crawl of the creature, 

 and it can be removed before operations are properly under way. 

 We were often surprised, after quick walks through the grass, to 

 find how many of these disgusting things could attach them- 

 selves to our boots and clothing. Scrub-leeches were not 

 numerous, and gave us little trouble, nor did the scrub-ticks, 

 but a diminutive one, in places here and there in the grass of 

 the forest, is a great nuisance. Frequently, after a few hours' 

 collecting, we would have fifty or more attached to us, and, 

 I must admit, the itching bites had to be violently rubbed 

 or scratched until the pestiferous little wretches were dis- 

 lodged ; off would come a fragment of cuticle too, but what 

 matter, so long as we obtained relief ? We learnt in time 

 where these ticks were particularly bad, and avoided such 



