THE VICTORIAN NATUKALIST. 45 



lasiantha covers the Silurian, and not a single plant crosses over 

 to the Granite country. Following the junction, the boundary is 

 clearly defined, a dense forest of stunted Stringybark covering 

 the poorer slate country. I was unable to find a single specimen 

 on the Granite soil, over which Gasuarina, Yellow Box, Banksia, 

 and Blackvvoods are thinly scattered. 



I have to thank our fellow-members, Mr. A. J. Campbell for his 

 great kindness in paying the district special visits to obtain the 

 photographs with which these notes have been illustrated, and 

 my brother Tom for help in the field. 



[The paper was illustrated by a fine series of limelight views 

 of the various sections, &c. The publication has been delayed 

 for the preparation of a map of the district. — Ed. Vict. Nat.'\ 



SOME NORTH-WEST QUEENSLAND BIRDS. 

 By Wm. Macgillivray, M.B., B.S. 

 {Read before the Field Naturalists^ Club of Victoria, llth March, 1901.) 

 Thinking that an enumeration of the principal birds from a 

 little-known part of Queensland, together with a short description 

 of their habits and general economy, would be of interest to the 

 ornithological members of the Club, I have put together these 

 notes from information imparted and skins and eggs sent me 

 from time to time by my brother, who has been a resident of the 

 district in question for over thirty years, and have supplemented 

 them in places by my own recollections of eight years spent 

 there over twenty years ago. 



The area to be dealt with is that surrounding and especially 

 to the east of Cloncurry, a small mining township situate about 

 200 miles south of Normanton, the chief port on the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria, and about 150 miles east of the Northern Territory 

 border. The country surrounding the town is hilly and scrubby, 

 becoming more stony and barren as one approaches the ranges 

 to the south and west, which form the watershed between the 

 Gulf rivers and those of the interior system to the east, and in 

 every direction beyond the ranges the country opens out into 

 undulating downs or plains, covered with a luxuriant growth of 

 grass and herbage and intersected at varying intervals of 10 to 

 20 miles by creeks which run during the rainy season and are 

 dried into waterholes for the rest of the year. There is as a rule 

 no timber on the plains, though the creeks are bordered by a 

 stunted form of eucalyptus, locally known as " coolibah," with 

 bauhinias, acacias, and other bushes and shrubs. Nearer the 

 ranges one finds more scrub, especially of a hard-wooded species 

 of acacia, known popularly as the " giddia " or " gidgee." The 

 climate is dry and warm for the greater part of the year. The 



