140 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



be too small to hold all the other occupants later on, when they 

 had grown larger, and that the foster-parents would be incapable 

 of feeding all the family. Besides which the young cookoo is 

 blind at this stage of its existence, and incapable of seeing the 

 opening of the nest, which is a covered-in one, with a side 

 entrance, out of which it ejects the eggs or nestlings as 

 the case may be, and were instinct or reason the predominating 

 faculty operating nature would assuredly have brought into power 

 the most important organs of the bird and those closest to the brain 

 — in short, the visual organs, or use of its eyes. Hence it is safe to 

 assume that neither instinct nor reason is the faculty which 

 operates in the young cuckoo, but that its action is a guiding 

 propensity or physiological law more fundamental even than 

 instinct. 



Many species of lizards are to be found in North Queensland. 

 One known as the Diamond-tailed Lizard or Gecko, Phyllurus 

 platurus, is frequently met with in rocky country, and is always 

 found with its head downwards on the rocks. It assumes this 

 position in order to make its enemies, such as hawks, believe that 

 its tail is its head, and when they attack it, as they usually do, at 

 the supposed head, they pull off the tail instead, and the lizard 

 wriggles away and survives. Insects creeping about the rocks 

 frequently fail to distinguish between the rock and the lizard, and, 

 walking over it, are licked off by its long tongue and swallowed. 

 Iguanas 6 and 7 feet long are not uncommon in the open forest 

 country, and give one a considerable start as they make for the 

 nearest tree up which to scramble. 



Turning to the vegetation found in North Queeensland, one 

 finds many singular forms. One of the most unpleasant sensa- 

 tions in travelling through the scrub is to come in contact with 

 the Giant Nettle, or Stinging Tree, Laportea moroides. It has 

 large soft-looking leaves like a geranium, and fruit like a rasp- 

 berry. The sting of this plant causes excruciating pain, and its 

 effect can be felt for months afterwards, especially should the 

 part stung be bathed with water. If a person be riding a horse 

 through the scrub and it should be accidentally stung, the rider 

 has to shin up the nearest tree as fast as he can, as the pain 

 drives the animal almost mad, causing it to bite and tear at 

 everything in its paroxysms of agony, and one therefore runs the 

 risk of being killed should he remain on the ground. 



When staying at a sugar plantation up north I was awakened 

 by piercing shrieks and howls, and upon hastening to ascertain 

 the cause found a Hindoo yelling at the top of his voice being 

 carried off to his hut by some fellow-countrymen, who informed 

 me that he was bewitched and possessed of a devil. It appears 

 that the Hindoos are inveterate thieves, and as the stores on the 

 plantations are built on piles, to prevent the white ants from 



