THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 75 



ment when the new rooms are finished, principally in that most 

 of the Australasian specimens will be removed to a special 

 department, as mentioned by Professor Spencer in the article 

 referred to. The additional space gained by this transfer will then 

 be occupied by numerous specimens from other parts of the world 

 at present in the reserve collection, and which for the want of 

 room cannot be placed on view. This may not take place for some 

 time ; however, in the meantime the public have in its present 

 shape a collection of Natural History objects which is both 

 artistically and scientifically arranged, and of the greatest interest 

 to the student as well as to the mere sightseer. In the foregoing 

 sketch no attempt has been made to enumerate the rarities in the 

 collections ; about these we hope to have a series of articles 

 when opportunity offers. 



SOME NORTH-WEST QUEENSLAND BIRDS. 



(Concluded from page 59.^ 



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



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



My brother describes rather an ingenious method employed by 

 the blacks for catching numbers of Flock Pigeons, advantage being 

 taken of the fact that the pigeons have favourite watering places 

 along the edge of a waterhole. Alongside one of these spots a hole 

 is dug deep enough and large enough to conceal a Black when 

 covered over with boughs, which are stuck into the mud round the 

 margin of the hole. This black has a spear-like stick, 12 or 15 feet 

 long, to the distal end of which is attached by the whole of one edge 

 a net four feet square, the opposite side being pegged to the ground. 

 The net and stick are kept on the ground, and when the flock 

 alights the net is whipped over them by the blackfellow, who is 

 watching from his hiding-place in the hole ; he instantly jumps out 

 and kills all the birds by biting their necks, throws them into his 

 hole, and gets back himself with net set in time for the next mob. 

 In this way my brother has seen a black take as many as two 

 hundred pigeons in a little over an hour. 



Phaps chalcoptera and Geophaps, sp. — The Bronze-wing 

 Pigeon occurs throughout the district, but nowhere in numbers, 

 whereas the Squatter or Partridge Pigeon can only be considered 

 an occasional visitor. 



Lopophaps plumifera. — My brother states that the Plumed 

 Pigeon lays in October, the two cream-coloured eggs being placed 

 on the bare ground under a spinifex tussock, on the seeds of 

 which the birds feed. They are exceedingly tame, and are very 

 easily caught, especially when sitting on eggs. 



OcYPHAPS LOPHOTES. — The graceful Crested Pigeon is found 



